Paradox - a TMNT fanfic
by DenymBear
Summary: Inspired by events in Mirage comics 8, 42, 46, 47. Splinter and his 13yr old Turtles are going to see the 4th of July fireworks. But they are caught in a city-wide calamity before they even leave the sewers. An injured Leo is rescued by a vast, mysterious power, and finds himself amongst the Time-Folk. With his friend Renet, he must travel time and find a way to save his family!
1. Foreword

**PARADOX - a TMNT fan-fic**

 **Foreword:**

A word or two from Sue...

Wow - it's been a long time! So - just a bit of explanation . After a couple of decades (yikes!) of hiatus, I have managed to free up some time in my life to get back into a few mothballed creative endeavors concerning my all time fave heroes - the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - and since I am having SO much fun reconnecting, not just with the fictitious Dudes, but with the real-life forever friends, whom I'd met _only because of the TMNT,_ way back in the pre-internet early 90's - and by the way, who are worth every single second spent on the frivolities of fan-fiction! (with Mega Thanks to Eastman and Laird for the idea of the Dudes in the first place!)

Having recently - with Ria-angelo's invaluable and much appreciated assistance - gotten my original TMNT fan-fic True Forces re-posted online, Ria and I did some further digging in our files, and have also unearthed synopses for those multiple and as yet unwritten tales, and a scanned copy of another - this particular one - **Paradox** \- which would still be languishing unfinished as well, had it not been for a dedicated few friends/fans who liked the concept so much they jumped in to assist me in getting the tale down on cyber-paper! I am forever grateful to them! Kim Garvin was the driving force in this project, and she recruited Dee and Wendy to see the tale come completely to life!

Ladies, you have my undying gratitude! I was Very Happy with the finished project!

And as Paradox has also now been resurrected, and tweaked over - here it is again for those who may find some small fraction of the enjoyment that those of us involved had in doing it!

Enjoy!

Yours in Green always!

Sue Sitler

October 2018

PS - verbatim from the synopsis notes I have: _**This tale is based on characters and events presented in the Mirage comics, issues 8, 42, 46 and 47. anyone knowing their stuff will immediately guess that this one is all about the Turtles, and Renet, and the Scepter of the Sacred Sands of Time**_ _._ and I include this information now, in the event anyone with said comics, might want to re-read them before jumping into the story! (and FYI, I couldn't possibly have told anyone any of that after so many years, if I hadn't found my notes...)

~o~

AND...additionally, for purposes of full historical disclosure and credit, here is Kim Garvin's original introduction to Paradox, included when the story was originally posted online in April 1998!

 **Paradox - a TMNT fan-fic**

Conceived and begun by Sue Sitler

Finished by Kim Garvin

1912 section done by Dee

1953 section done by Wendy Peabody

First posted 4/19/1998, but years in the writing!

The Story behind the Story:

Back in the early 90's, Sue wrote the synopsis and several scenes for this story. Other important things calling her away, she was unable to finish it. Of several TMNT fan-fics she started, only True Forces was completed (started after the first movie, and finished shortly after the second one.)

In late '94, Sue loaned me a copy of Paradox. With my reaction to it, she offered to let me complete it. (If anyone can't tell the difference in writing styles, and want to know what Sue did, email me and I'll be happy to tell you just what her sections are.)

Even with her plot synopsis, which I stayed fairly close to, it was never an easy story to finish. Time travel headaches and stuck points that I wanted better than cliché outcomes kept making road blocks. Then, I would end up on another of my fan-fics around and in between bursts of inspiration for Paradox. It did seem like it was never going to be finished!

Then Dee's interest in Titanic got me to ask if she'd like to help write that section. I had to laugh that when Sue did the synopsis, the Titanic movie wasn't even in pre-production! Talk about time going by! Dee took what little I had done on this part and completed it with a twist I hadn't thought of!

And having worked with Wendy on Chapter 13 of her Seth story, it was only natural to ask for help on my stuck spots with Paradox. I finally convinced her to the 1953 section. I may have done some plot planning with her, but what she did made me delete my pitiful start on that part!

And a 'thank you' to Ria, who, as always, saw this thing take shape along the way, and let me bounce ideas off her.

Thanks Sue for letting me run with your idea!

Kim Garvin - April 1998


	2. Chapter 1

**Paradox: Chapter One**

Splinter made his way over the narrow pipe that bridged a deeper channel. Echoing sounds from ahead, his ears caught the excited chattering of Michelangelo and Raphael. He smiled, although he should be scolding them for such behavior. It was not the way of the ninja to be heard two blocks away. But it was a holiday, the Fourth of July. They were on their way to attend the fireworks display. He had first taken them several years ago, and it had gone so well it had become a yearly tradition. One of their rare outings into the upper world, it served as education and entertainment.

Michelangelo bumped into Raphael, almost sending him into the channel. Raphael countered by bouncing Michelangelo into the wall.

"Step on a crack, break your brother's back," Michelangelo sang out.

Donatello and Raphael exchanged a glance, and deliberately stomped on one.

Splinter did not mind. His sons would soon outgrow this behavior. In a couple more years, his students would lose their remaining awkwardness. The bumps were smoothing out as they mastered their favored weapons; as they bonded into a team that would make them ready for - no. He must not think of That yet. His sons were not ready for Them yet, for Him. The times he had run across that clan's members, and in defeating them, obtained some of the weapons he had given to the turtles, had taxed his skills to the utmost. Better he should enjoy what he had left of their childhood. It would be over too soon.

They will be fine, he thought. They are learning well, and next year they will make this journey by themselves, without me.

Arthritis was catching up to him, despite his attempts to cover it up, to ignore it, to massage or exercise it away. The time has come to let go a little. To grant them some freedom. Next year I will watch the celebration on the television.

Splinter saw Raphael knuckling Michelangelo's head over some joke. Today even Raphael was in a playful mood. At becoming a teen, his emotional outbursts had formed into a solid inner core of anger. Splinter did his best to temper it, encouraging the balancing bond between Raphael and Michelangelo to be forged deep.

And while Michelangelo might not be the most attentive of students, fortunately his natural talents kept him even. Sometimes it was hard to punish Michelangelo rather than give in to laughter.

Donatello was humming to himself, hanging back, staying clear of the roughhousing in front of him. Earlier Splinter had listened to his detailed explanation of how fireworks were constructed, set-up and set off. It hurt Splinter to see Donatello's greatest talents left to waste in these sewers. But there was no place for him, except on the wrong side of science, in the world above.

Again Splinter smiled to himself, he heard no sound of his last son that came behind. Leonardo always tried too hard. He acted with a responsibility beyond his youthful years. But today was for fun. "Go on Leonardo," he smiled to the silent follower. "Join your brothers. Or do you think your teacher cannot take care of himself?" From his robe, Splinter slipped out a rare treat, a bag of M&Ms.

Accepting the gift with a quick bow, Leonardo jumped across the channel to the other side. He ran, shaking the bag, grinning triumphantly. "Guys! Look what Splinter gave us!"

The two ahead stopped to let the others catch up. Splinter fed off their happiness, melded it with his own. Without them he would have given up struggling to survive long ago.

Leonardo had reached the point where Raphael and Michelangelo eagerly waited, about to jump back to their side. But then came an ominous rumble. A low vibration more felt than heard.

"They started already?!" Michelangelo wailed. "I told you we should have left sooner!"

An unknown terror gripped Splinter. He saw that his sons sensed it too. A primal urge to flee.

A second later, the earth shook. Cracks formed in the tunnel's surfaces. Dust drifted down, and as the cracks widened with the continued rumbling, larger chunks fell. Unable to move fast enough, a two-foot block smashed Splinter's shoulder. He grunted in pain, and heard his sons' cries too. He sought to stay calm, to find a way through this -

But the whole ceiling gave way, and the rest was darkness -

~o~

There was a throbbing sensation that wouldn't go away. He tried to shift, but couldn't move his leg. That was - strange...

Then he tasted dirt in his mouth. Spitting it out, his eyes fluttered open...

"No!" Leo cried, coming fully awake.

He lay on his belly amidst the dirt and rubble of the collapsed tunnel. Two lights defined the extent of the devastation.

His right leg was pinned between the concrete floor and a block from the ceiling. To his dismay, it was too heavy for him to push away.

Leo studied his surroundings, trying to locate the others. Below him in the channel, not too far away, Raphael lay on his back, unconscious. "Raph!" Leo called, wishing he could reach him. "Yo Rapheroni!"

He got no response. "Please, Raph, wake up! You're not pinned, you can free me! Help me!"

Frustrated, Leo's fingers closed on a small piece of concrete. Looking at it, he had a flash of inspiration. With a grin he sent the stone at his brother. It thunked him on the arm. _Always had a knack with throwing things!_

"Wake up, Raph!" Leo yelled, sailing a few more chunks after, pelting Raph hard enough to sting, but not to do any damage.

Raph didn't even flinch. Or twitch. Or mumble.

"C'mon you lazy bum _Wake up_!"

In desperate denial, Leo threw them harder and harder. He couldn't stop, though his fingers were scratched and sore from digging in the rubble for more. Hot tears ran down his nose, as a larger chunk bounced off Raph's nose. Raph's head shifted and rolled towards him. Eyes stared at him.

Eyes with pupils fixed wide.

Eyes that didn't blink.

Eyes that were empty.

Leonardo howled in his anguish, thrashing hopelessly against the crushing boulder. The dizziness increased, and everything went gray.

He woke a start. He thought he'd heard something, but when he looked: nothing. Wishful thinking...

Raph stared up at him. Eyes dulled now. Not Raph anymore, just the husk of Raph. A horrible reality, no matter how he wished it all a dream. With a soul-rending howl, Leo hurled handfuls of stones at the light above until it shattered, ridding himself of its evil glare, covering Raphael in peaceful darkness.

He strained to raise himself as far as he could, seeking signs of the others above the rubble that surrounded him. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his blurry vision. Hoping, praying...

He spotted Splinter, nearly camouflaged in the sandy dirt that half-buried him. Tears formed anew at the sight of his sensei, left arm and shoulder hopelessly dislocated, broken.

As if that matters, he's dead too. Soft-furred nose pointed to the ceiling, the lips pulled back in a grimace like none Splinter had ever worn in life.

Near Splinter, a hand jutted from the sand, fingers kinked and frozen. The top of a bo projected above. _"Don..."_ Leo's throat tightened as he moaned. Buried - as he tried to reach for Splinter...

Mikey?! Where is Michelangelo? Maybe Mike...? Leo strained harder to see, lifting and pulling against the rock that pinned him, ignoring the stabs of pain. He had to know!

Far at the edge of the remaining light bulb's illumination was his last brother. In the half-light Leo saw Michelangelo and the huge block that had smashed his back. Turtle shells weren't impervious to everything, and Mike's was cracked so bad -

Leo sagged hopelessly to the ground. He had seen enough. Seen too much.

 _They're -_

 _dead._

 _All dead. I'm -_

 _alone._

 _Why me? How could they leave me?_

His mind alternated between acceptance and denial as he struggled again to move the entrapping stone.

I'm sick. I've got some fever that's making me see this. I must have been hit on the head.

 _No. They're dead. And you're not. Think. You've got to stay calm or you'll -_

Better. I don't want to be alone. I need them. They're all I've got! How could this happen?

 _What had happened?_

Leonardo thought beyond himself; for the sewer to collapse, there must have been a major earthquake or explosion. For no one to have come to repair these conduits, repair the street, even start the clean-up at all; it must have been massive. These were important lines, many of them hung loose, destroyed.

Could it have been that bad? Not just a local accident or terrorist attack?

Something like -

a nuclear explosion?

World War III? Did someone _nuke_ New York?

Leo was sick to his stomach with the thought. Awful television images of wars left him shaking uncontrollably. He shrunk into himself, huddling into a protective ball as best he could. He'd never felt so hopeless. That his life was so meaningless.

I'm just a speck on an uncaring world. A world destroyed by madmen out of control. How could they do this? How could they use such powerful weapons and destroy everything? All the wasted lives. Pointless. What's the point to living anyway? Where's the purpose?

It was Independence Day. The Fourth of July. All we wanted was to see the fireworks.

Leo cried himself into sleep, now his only escape from this - this end, this horrible end of his whole world.

"I never got to say good-bye..." he whispered in his despair.

The sleep hadn't helped. Now Leo was hungry. Really hungry. His stomach growled, adding another annoyance to the dull pain from his leg. His eye was blurry again; he rubbed at it tenderly.

He thought about Splinter's gift of M&Ms and his throat choked up.

Quit crying like some baby. I've had to fast before. I'll be all right.

But I need water. Without water I'll get dehydrated and -

He laughed bitterly.

Just think about something else. If you were spared, it must be for a reason, he convinced himself. There's something you have to do. And Splinter will be watching.

He analyzed the concrete trapping him. Maybe if he had something to use as a lever?

Don's bo was out of reach. Don, suffocated by the weight of the sand - no! Don't think about that -

Leo noticed a busted pipe hanging above, over a foot out of reach.

"Damn," he swore, pounding his fist on the ground. A rattling reminded him he had his swords. He pulled one out excitedly. He could use this to knock it loose!

Banging the back of the blade against the pipe, dirt drifted down, making his eyes water, but he kept at it until the pipe gave. Leo crossed his arms over his head to protect himself as it fell and bounced off him.

With a triumphant cry he grabbed it and stuck an end under the stone. Used a concrete chunk for the fulcrum, then pushed. The stone shifted! He felt the pressure lessen on his leg.

But it wasn't enough, he couldn't work his leg free.

He pushed again. Harder. Changed the leverage angle somewhat. He could taste freedom...

With a groan, the pipe bent."No!" he couldn't help but yell aloud. _No, no, no..._

Trapped! He was still trapped. And now the pipe was useless.

Useless.

In dark anger, Leo hurled the piece of twisted metal away. It clanged against the wall, setting off a short series of echoes that died with his hope. He lay with gritted teeth and tensed muscles staring coldly at the sword resting next to him. Next to his leg.

He picked it up. Light played along the metal as his other hand tested the edge. Wolves caught in traps had been known to chew their legs off to get free...

Leo angrily jammed the katana blade in its sheath. I'd bleed to death before I could find help. And there's no one to help me anyway. No one.

There's nothing I can do. Nothing...

~o~

He had dozed. Had nodded off again. Leo was, when he started awake, still feeling weak, and was getting weaker. Thirst was tormenting him now, and the little fits of slumber were getting to be more and more like fainting spells.

Nothing had changed, except the air...

The air was going very bad.

Leonardo tried not to think about why, wondered instead if the foul atmosphere would do anything to hasten his own end, which, increasingly, he was coming to desire very much.

His left eye stung, was hot and itching and would soon be swollen shut. It was oozing fluid, the look of which he didn't care for at all when he wiped the back of his hand across it. A thick and sticky yellow mucus trailed across his skin, no doubt smelling as bad as the rest of the corruption around him. If so, he could no longer distinguish it, and didn't even care to try.

The right eye would go too, before long. And when that happened, he mused, morbidly, he wouldn't have to _see_ anymore.

He wished the damn light would burn out. Amid all the wreckage and the destruction, that damn light bulb had survived, both the bulb and the power lines that fed it, had survived. It wasn't fair.

Tombs ought to be dark.

And they should be silent too.

It took a second, but after the moment and the small shock of recognition had passed, it was just another torment. It was only a trickle of water, commonplace enough in the sewers. He'd lived with that sound all his life. There was always water...

Leo hung his head again, listening to the trickle, wondering if it was coming down the same unseen hole as the cool air that wafted by from time to time. Maybe it was raining up topside, maybe it was...

He blinked suddenly, a quick and irrational panic. If it rained, it could flood. It would flood and he was still trapped, couldn't get out -

 _Maybe that's good_ , Leo told himself. _Maybe that's good anyway._

Something was amiss. Something was different, was changing...

His gaze darted around in alarm, unable to identify what it was. A rat scurried along the bottom, vanishing with a squeak under the debris not too far from Raph.

The shadows seemed deeper there than he thought he remembered.

Raph moved.

His heart stopped, then leapt into a furious beating that was equal parts terror, hope and adrenaline in potent combination. Black hazed around the peripheries of his vision.

 _He's not dead he's not dead he's not really._

But he was. Raph was dead, well and truly dead. All his remaining good sense insisted on it. Raph hadn't survived, there was no hope for that at all, and what moved down there was a corpse, dislodged and afloat in a growing pool of sewer water.

Water had been seeping in, God alone knew for how long. It had been silently seeping in and soaking into the loose dirt and debris until it had hit the saturation point. And the water had kept coming up, trickling in from wherever, and it hadn't found a way out. Hadn't found a way through the wreckage on his side of the blocked tunnel, and now the chamber was simply going to fill up.

All at once, Leonardo jerked hard against the concrete slab keeping him pinned, kicking futilely at the dirt and debris behind his feet, fighting with all the scarce strength that remained to him.

The effort brought on another black out.

A wet splashing on the back of his neck brought him out of it.

 _How long? How long was I out?_

Too long. The water was much higher than it had been...

The next thought was worse. _Not long enough_. Now he would only have to wait it through, aware...

It was noisy, much too noisy, after the past several days of sensory deprivation. The water was visibly rising, the trickle had become a cascade pouring steadily into a pool foaming with filthy brown sludge. Mud slid into the pool from the opposite wall, dirt and pebbles falling into the tangle of corpses that had so long lain immobile and were awash now in a swiftly rising tide, one that would claim him too, soon enough.

Panic occurred to him.

 _Panic will kill you, faster than anything_ , Splinter had told them. _You must never panic, never give into it..._

He was trapped.

Better to drown, Leo thought, trying to quell the panic, trying to keep what Splinter would have expected from him in mind. Drowning's supposed to be painless, that's what they say, drowning is a good way to go if you have to, drowning's -

 _Drowning_ wasn't supposed to happen to Turtles.

 _I wanted this_ , he told himself. _I wanted this, I did -_

But getting it was a different thing altogether, a far, far different thing than just wishing for it.

He lifted his nose, tried to keep it out of water that was swirling with corruption and decay. Never drink from standing water. How many times had Splinter said that? Never drink from -

It wasn't going to be a matter of choice.

Something slapped his face, a body, maybe, and the panic, horror driven, slapped him too. Nothing mattered now, nothing would matter, no one would care, no one would even know if he panicked. He spat water, choked on the next inadvertent swallow. He flailed wildly at the objects batting at him in the flood, horrified at what he imagined they were, flailing at the water, as if he could somehow keep it away, force it back, bail himself out.

Inexorably, the water rose.

Very suddenly, it seemed then, he was under.

The wild flailing became a wild grasping for anything that came inside reach, nothing but animal will-to-survive instinct now. His hand closed on something that turned on him and bit and tore at his fingers until he finally let the rat go.

The light from the sewer bulb had become nothing more than a distant glow in the murk. He was holding his breath, what there had been of it, totally submerged now. There was a swift and unexpected blow to the back of his skull, a brick dislodged out of the debris, maybe, and his vision went from gray-black to an intense, blazing brilliance, a burning of stars and of suns and of a cosmic glow -

A glow that didn't fade.

A glow that grew, coming at him, or just maybe he was going toward it, a too bright, opalescent _Presence_ was there, or here, at the end of all things.

It's like the tabloids said it would be, Leo mused, feeling curiously detached with oxygen deprivation. It was all calm and slow, one last inane train of thought _. It's all an out of body thing..._

Something coalesced inside, or perhaps out of the glow, there was a hand reaching for him, accompanied by that vast _Presence_ , a hand that just could have been Splinter's, he thought serenely, from the long-fingered, rodent-nailed way it looked.

Leo stretched out his own hand for it, feeling no fear at all anymore...

 _Splinter! He's come for me! It's time to go!_

Leo brushed it with his fingertips, ready to rejoin his family. He was detached from his broken body. It didn't matter anymore. He was going to be with them again! His fingers closed on the hand and -

Lightning struck at him, shattering his serenity, wrenching his consciousness to sudden terror. It wasn't Splinter! It was a horribly clawed _thing_ , a thing that seized on him, pouring fire into his soul, dragging him to the brink of an abyss, taking him with it into a bottomless well of raw power.

Leonardo opened his mouth to scream, no longer at all aware of the water.

Then, abruptly, it was over.

~o~

On the 79th Level of Null Time, Renet, the current incumbent Time Mistress and Holder of the Sceptre of the Sacred Sands of Time, was unable to sleep. Without knowing why, she wandered the halls, finding herself at last before the Sacred Chamber. Sometimes she still felt like a child going where she wasn't allowed, but now it was her right to be here. Anytime.

She walked in to find she wasn't alone. Old Lord Simultaneous was pacing, muttering to himself.

"Can't sleep either?" she asked.

Old Sim jumped nearly a foot in the air. "Huh?! Ah. Hi Renet."

"So is it insanity or insomnia?"

He shook a finger at her, "Young lady, you should show more respect! How you ever got to your position - "

She grinned wickedly, "Save it old man. I've heard it all before. But then again, a lecture from you might be just what I need to make me sleepy." For good measure, she finished by sticking her tongue out at him. Even though she had gotten over her fear of Old Sim - he'd long since gone from stern taskmaster to beloved father figure - she still liked to tease him. And curmudgeon that he was, he loved it, too.

"So here we are, both of us unsettled this night," he said simply, not taking her bait for an argument.

Renet tried again, "Apparently, with all your wisdom, pacing is your very best cure for insomnia?"

This time he took the hook. "I've had plenty of years to try all the suggestions, Mistress of Timeless Impudence. Warm milk, counting sheep, boring books, television, eating bagels, drinking tea...Sadly, none work."

"Maybe you should try the one I heard yesterday when I was in Australia, 1995 -"

But Renet never finished her suggestion. There was a sudden, subtle, shimmering of blue light on the Sceptre's dais, and - something completely unprecedented happened!

The Sceptre itself flared, emitting a brilliant blue flash and then it vanished!

 _On its own, without Holder or instruction._ This had never happened before!

But Renet only had a heartbeat to panic. As she spun to fully face the empty spot it had been resting in, Sim said, "Wait- it returns!" - pointing to a familiar glittering, shattering phenomena. Shards of time-folded light crystallized, and out of the blue came a green figure.

Renet and Sim both stared open-mouthed at the mutant Turtle who was standing unsteadily on the dais, Sceptre in his hands -

Something was very wrong. Dripping water, with one eye swollen shut, he looked at them dumfounded. He took one step back, trying to adopt some sort of defensive pose, barely standing as a leg nearly gave out. His head turned, his good eye blinking as he tried to focus on them. But he wobbled and collapsed to the floor. The Sceptre rolled free of his limp fingers.

"Leo!" Renet yelled, breaking free of her surprise. If nothing else, the swords across his back identified her friend.

Sim joined her as her hands touched the cold, wet skin. Skin that was too cold.

"Is he dead?" Old Sim asked.

"Nearly," Renet said bitterly, her fingers probing at Leo's battered form. "By the Sands, he's a mess!"

"But why would the Sceptre do this?" the old man wondered, his brow crinkled in worried, distracted speculation.

Renet snapped at him - this was one of her friends, not some damned dispassionate puzzle! " _Sim!_ Worry about that later! He needs immediate attention!"

Sim nodded, startled out his reverie. "Yes. Of course, I didn't mean - " he said gently.

Renet grabbed the Sceptre, clearing her mind, summoning up the healing functions it possessed. Holding it above the inert Turtle, she reached inward to embrace the Sceptre's power, and then focused it outward to align the patterns and restore the ideal and undamaged structure -

Nothing happened.

Renet frowned. Then tried again, this time kneeling down to touch Leo with her other hand, thinking maybe direct contact would help. But Leo lay unmoving; the swollen eye, the numerous cuts, the ashen cast to his skin unchanged.

"What's wrong with this thing?" she complained, looking up to Old Sim. "Did we forget to renew the warranty? Change the batteries?" Her voice betrayed her worry, it tripped over the weak attempts at false humour.

"The answer to this mystery lies with your friend, I would guess. Stay with him, Renet. I will get aid."

As Sim blinked out, Renet stared hard at the traitorous Sceptre, but it revealed nothing. She willed it back to its place.

 _Mess_ wasn't anywhere near enough to describe this.

 _"Leo,"_ she whispered into the silence of the chamber. "What are you _doing_ here, Leo?"

But Renet received no reply -

~o~


	3. Chapter 2

**Paradox: Chapter Two**

When Leonardo woke up, it was only to find that nothing made sense.

 _Nothing_ \- made _any_ sense.

And as hard as Leonardo tried to make it make sense, the sense eluded him.

He had too many questions without answers. There was too much of... of _everything_ about this place and the people in it that just didn't add up. All of it was odd and unusual and surpassing strange and not a single one of the pieces he'd picked up would fit -

A hospital he could have swallowed - any sort of hospital with doctors and nurses and beds in curtained white wards filled with patients of ordinary human origin - _that_ he could have accepted.

Isolation in a military facility with a maximum security hospital filled with guards carrying guns and doctors and scientists armed with needles and scopes and questions - _that_ he would have expected...

Not this place, which was all stone and marble and indirect lighting on spartan, elegant stone and marble accessories. A little stone table and a low cupboard over there. Abstract and subtly contrasting pieces of decorative art fixed to walls that were, in some places, draped with thin and silky looking tapestries. Things that looked ancient and disquietingly barbaric.

And that made no sense either. The few people he'd seen so far had come at him with unidentifiable but inarguably high-tech stuff that they could very well have borrowed from Doctor McCoy -

They, at least, had acted like real doctors, and someone had provided him with some sort of proper medical care...he'd found some sense in that, and he was in actual fact, feeling much better than he recalled -

Suddenly, all the little sense he'd found was slipping away again, chased out by this far too good-looking, far too young woman in a bathing suit of metallic blue satin and knee-high boots to match. A startlingly blue-eyed blonde bombshell strutting about the stone and marble halls and possessing the presumed/assumed authority to dismiss the medic, and who had just addressed him by his own name.

She was smiling at him with a dazzling prettiness as she dropped onto the edge of his borrowed bed in a manner that suggested they were old and close friends...

Leonardo didn't like it in the least.

He trusted it even less.

"Hey, Leo - " the girl began. "How're you feelin' today, huh?"

There were any number of things he could have said in response. Most of what came immediately to mind was hostile and combative. _Who the hell wants to know?_ was the first retort. _None of your damn business,_ was the second. The third reply, poised on his tongue, was the one that almost came out, driven by a diffuse panic. _Get the hell off my bed!_

He was nervous. More than nervous. Gut-knotting anxiety tied up every response and kept him staring into those blue eyes silently.

He had never in his life spoken with a human face to face.

"Leo?" The girl prompted him finally. "Okay? Hmmm?"

"Better," he said at last, in a weak voice. "Better than I was. I think."

Her hand landed on his knee to give him a comforting pat. He jerked back in startlement, not expecting it. Embarrassed then, he looked away, casting his glance helplessly around the stone and marble chamber, looking for something sane and familiar to anchor himself on.

The hand withdrew quickly at the reaction it had caused. "Hmmm. Sorry," she apologized. "You've had a few shocks, Leo. I shouldn't have done that. Sorry," she said again, and seemed to mean it.

He took a few deep breaths. He needed the oxygen. It helped, got his pulse back in line and his brain functioning again. He had, he decided, nothing to lose by conversation.

"Where am I?" he asked. "Who...who are you?"

Nope, nothing at all to lose, not just for asking, and everything to gain, if he could trust any answer that he got.

He had already lost everything, everyone that mattered.

 _Don't,_ he warned himself. _Don't even think about it, keep your wits up, don't even think about -_

The questions, simple ones, seemed to confuse the girl. She straightened her back, frowning slightly. "They didn't tell me that you had amnesia," she commented, and then she bit at her lower lip thoughtfully.

"Do I?" The confusion was contagious. Leo's hand went to the bandage wrapped around his head. He probed at the fabric, touched at the gauzy stuff over the left eye. "Something hit me hard, but -" he let his voice trail off. His head didn't hurt that much. He'd either been comatose long enough for an injury to heal or he hadn't been hurt that badly in the first place.

He had no way of knowing.

 _But I don't know any blondes! I just know that I don't know any blonde bombshells!_

"But?" she prompted him again.

Still, he could not remember how he'd gotten here, wherever here really was. He didn't recall having said anything to anyone since the arrival. He couldn't even guess at anything he might have said and -

And all of that was making him very, very uneasy.

These people knew his name. Had he told them what it was? Had he? Had he met this girl, and lost the memory somehow?

"But..." Leo's voice trailed into another silence. Irritation roiled into the confusion and uncertainty. He felt the hostility on the rise again. He slouched back into the pillows behind him, closing his eyes, feigning a nonchalance he didn't feel. "I asked you a question," he complained. "You haven't answered it yet."

He would fight them until he found out enough to get his bearings, that was what he'd do. He would not _give_ anything away...

 _Sure, he thought. Sic a beautiful blonde on me and see what happens. Head games. They want something, they must want me to tell them something -_

So why didn't they just ask him some questions?

The girl shook her own head. "Shocks," she shrugged. "My name's Renet. You know me Leo, you and all of your brothers, you all know me, we met almost seven years ago, when I was just fourteen and - "

Leo lost his composure. _"_ Almost _seven_ years ago?" He scoffed at the statement, he couldn't help it. "Right." he replied sarcastically. _When I was six years old..._

Splinter would have admonished him for the rudeness. Splinter would have expected better from him...a sudden lump came into his throat.

She smiled. "Well, okay. Not seven years on your timeline. Seven on mine."

"Seven years," Leo said dryly, "Is seven years." _Now_ what was she talking about?

"Seven very relative years, if you happen to be a Time Mistress." She was still smiling that very dazzling smile. "I guess I'll have to explain it all again..."

And with that, she launched into a tale that left Leonardo staring at her blankly. A tale all about time-travel and magic wands and medieval battles and evil wizards. He listened politely through the whole thing, and said nothing at all when she finally stopped talking.

"Well?" she asked when the silence went on. "Any recall yet?"

Leo shook his head mutely. _She's crazy. She's crazier than anything in this place yet - does she really expect me to believe that stuff?_

"There's more."

"Is there," he stated more than asked. "Really."

He was feeling very calm now, resting secure in the knowledge that he wasn't the only or the worst nut case in this place.

 _It's a mental ward of some sort. Must be. She's hallucinating, or..._

 _Or I am. Never had a dream like this one. Doesn't feel anything like a dream. Maybe I'm still dying and brain death takes a long, long time..._

But he still didn't remember any blondes in his life. And she didn't look like one of Charlie's Angels either. What kind of a name was Renet anyway? Where had his dying brain conjured this stuff from?

 _Nope, no sense at all, anywhere in this. None._

Renet's tone had been light, throughout the tale. Her eyes had sparkled. She had tried, had made several attempts to cheer him up. She grew sober now, at his persistent deadpan tone and expression. He hadn't seen anything light or amusing in the story, and references she'd made to his brothers had only served to darken an already poor mood.

She'd had details - he'd done an awful lot of talking that he didn't recall in the least.

"Not scoring many points am I?"

He shook his head. He didn't see much point in talking to her anymore, especially if she was just a hallucination.

She sighed. "You really don't remember?"

"Can't remember things that didn't happen."

 _"They happened."_ She insisted again.

Leo shrugged. "If you say so."

"I'm your _friend_ , Leo. I'm - "

 _Ouch._

It was too much. Last straw, that claim. It made him angry.

"Look, what is it you really want?" he finally burst out. "I've got nothing to hide, nothing to protect! What's with all the fairy tales? Ask me a question I can answer, dammit! Who's really in charge here? And where the hell is here? And please, I _don't_ want to hear that it's somewhere in the far future. Tell me something that I'll actually _believe_ , lady!"

Her expression went abruptly as blank as his had been a moment ago. It was like he'd slapped her. She looked at him long and hard, looked at him as if she was seeing him for the first time.

"Leo..." there was suddenly uncertainty in her voice. "Leonardo, how old are you?"

Another stupid question! But at least it was one that he could answer.

"Thirteen," he said. "Almost."

Renet got off his bed, backing away as if he'd contracted some sort of contagion, still staring at him. "You can't be!" she whispered. "It doesn't work that way. You were sixteen when I first met you."

She was visibly alarmed. Still crazy. Why that particular bit of innocuous information should so upset anyone Leo couldn't even imagine. "Sorry. Almost thirteen." It wasn't his fault the truth was so brutal. _Crazy, crazy stuff._ He didn't understand it, wasn't sure he wanted to...

"It doesn't work that way." Renet repeated herself again. "Something's happened. Something terrible has gone wrong."

With that assessment, Leo wasn't going to argue. It was the first sane thing this girl had said to him.

"Leo. Leo, where are your brothers? Where is Splinter?"

How she couldn't know that was another mystery. If they'd found him, surely they'd found -

"Dead," he said, and almost choked on it, the first time he'd actually said it out loud. "They're all dead, didn't you know that?"

She squeezed her eyes shut, like it really bothered her, and bothered her personally.

"Oh Leo. Leo I'm so sorry - that's just terrible! They were my friends, too. Really, I'm so, so sorry..." Renet approached the bed again, reaching out to squeeze one of his hands.

There was more to the reaction than just that though, it was as if he'd just confirmed something else, something more dire than a few recent deaths, and she knew what it was.

"It explains a few things," she said finally.

"What?" Leo prompted Renet for information this time. "Like what does it explain?"

Her eyes met his and held them. "Leo, something really dreadful has happened." Renet paced away from the bed, folding her arms in agitation. "We're caught. Caught in a - oh _damn._ It's only supposed to be a theory!" She stopped, as if it was something too dreadful to say out loud.

Renet took a deep, deep breath.

Leonardo waited.

 _"We're caught in a Paradox!"_

~o~

She watched him try to think it through, his face knotted in concentration and disbelief. It was too much. He lay there, so confused she felt awful for having added to his pain. _He's only thirteen! Thirteen!_

Renet should have noticed, but Leo's condition had been so appalling, she hadn't. Until now. It was not just debilitation. The gangling, skinny-muscled look wasn't only hunger and dehydration.

It was _youth_.

And the others... _dead?!_ What had the Sceptre pulled Leo out of? What had gone wrong? But as she was trying to decide how to gently phrase the question, one of the doctors came in. _Typical timing,_ she thought.

Leo was sullen through the brief exam, only giving the tersest of answers. Eyes cast downward, he never once glanced at Renet. _He doesn't believe anything I've told him. What must he think is happening to him?_

The doctor turned a stern eye to her. "Renet, you've been stressing him out."

"I'm sorry," she said again. _And I'll keep saying it. I really am. And worse, now I'm as confused as Leonardo is._

"His condition has greatly improved, but he needs to rest." The doctor threw a pointed look at Renet as she gave Leo his medication. In seconds, Leo's eyelid drooped and he sank deeper into his pillow. The tensed muscles loosened as he fell into the enforced sleep. Satisfied, the doctor looked him over one more time and left with a last meaningful look at Renet.

 _Yeah, I got it. But I'm the only one that Knows. If I thought I had insomnia before - how am I gonna explain this to Old Sim?_

~o~

"So, why won't the Sceptre heal him?" Renet asked, slouched in a chair as she ran her fingers through frazzled hair. She had presented the terrible truth to Sim. _At least I didn't go into hysterics, but Sim... I've never seen him look so - old, confused... worried._

Sim stared at the sleeping Turtle. "There's got to be some obscure technical reason at the root of why it won't heal...But," he started pacing, keeping his voice soft. "A bigger problem - a much bigger problem - is why the Sceptre is... misbehaving."

Renet rubbed at tired eyes. She groaned at the thought of punishment from the Council. This wasn't going to be easy to unravel, and would put her smack into the hot seat. The Sceptre was hers, in a way that only a true Time Lord or Mistress could understand.

And she was thus answerable for it. The behavior of the Sceptre was, according to all known precedents, a reflection of its Holder. And she had a Reputation after all. A wild streak. She was younger than any Time Lord or Mistress on record, and there were two former Holders on the Council, at least one of whom bore her some animosity.

And now the Sceptre, _her Sceptre,_ had done something she couldn't in any way account for.

Renet wasn't happy at all. But at least Sim was a Witness. He'd been there and would attest to the facts. Which the Council was going to be asking for very soon.

Sim's voice dragged her back. "The Sceptre isn't supposed to be intelligent. It's just... a tool. It has always required a living mind to direct and make use of its powers. So who directed it to bring him here? How did we wind up with this... Paradox?"

"Don't look at me," Renet yawned. The confusion was overwhelming, her mind didn't want to deal with the implications or the mad spaghetti tangle of logic-illogic. _A_ _lways hated Boolean algebra,_ if p then q... _Course I understand it now. Even if it was one of those things I didn't think I'd ever master._

Sim smiled gently, "Go get some sleep. The Council will be convening at eight bells."

She sighed, "I'm just worried I might wake up and find I don't exist anymore. Or run into another one of me - " Renet broke off as she rose from the chair. "Guess we're not as in control as we like to think we are."

Sim took her by the elbow, guiding her out. "You ever thought you were? Only Lord Simultaneous is ever in control."

"You lie terribly, but thank you Sim," she almost laughed, then headed for her room, far too tired to make sense of anything but the concept of a soft bed...

~o~

Renet listened to the conclusion of the medics' report: nothing extraordinary from their findings. Leonardo had sustained serious injuries, compounded by dehydration and all that, but was otherwise... normal. If not for her having discovered his age, they might not have noticed anything unusual about him.

That meant she was now the focal point of the whole meeting. She curled her toes tightly, trying not to show the tension she was feeling.

At least Sim was her ally. He _understood_ the Sceptre that lay on the Council's table before her. He had Held it for time out of mind, for nearly two generations, before she had come of age and discovered her own affinity for it. The Old Lord had explained it to her, with only a little rancor, after the Sceptre had thrown him over and adopted her as its new Holder; how she'd been born to the task, how she was, on both parental sides, a direct descendant of one the most adept Mistresses ever to Hold the Sceptre. It came in the genes, the aptitude, the strength of will, and the psychic ability to wield the most powerful and mysterious Artefact in all the known Universe...

Rather scarily impressive, if flowery sounding words, based on what had been an act of unmitigated theft; but the Old Lord had forgiven her, fourteen year-old sassy brat that she'd been. He'd explained that it had been the Sceptre itself that had compelled her to the act. No Lord or Mistress liked to admit it, but it was the Sceptre that Chose its Holder. It was never anyone's fault, and sometimes it was even against their will that they were Chosen.

It was all in the Archives. Records had been kept from the very beginning, and were a chore to get through. But they had been mandatory reading even for sullen pre-teens with Aptitude.

Renet had learned those musty records, with more than a pre-teen interest after she'd been Chosen. It was a matter of her own survival, and she'd learned quickly enough to satisfy the Councillors. Even those who'd been less than enthused about her elevated status to Time Mistress at the tender age of fifteen and a half.

 _Too much responsibility,_ they had argued, _too young._

It was all sour grapes, and there had been nothing that those doing the whining could have done about it anyway.

The Sceptre _Chose._

It was hers now, and she was the Sceptre's. She worked the Sceptre; the Sceptre worked time and space and events; and together they maintained the known Universe in Equilibrium.

At least, until it had Done Something Unprecedented by dumping Leo in their Null Void.

She stared at it on the table, the sands glowing softly in its normal hues of pink and violet.

But she remembered the blue flare right before it had vanished on its own doing. _Guess it's payback time for my roguish past,_ she sighed, kicking back in her seat. _What a waste of time this council meeting will be. All arguing over stuff that's too soon to answer. So they'll end up assigning all of us to further studies. Maybe, if I'm real lucky, I won't end up grounded..._

Three hours later a butt-sore Renet left the meeting. _Didn't need to be a psychic for that._

Sim was to head up the search into what the Sceptre had done. She was grounded, but then, so was everyone. Until there was evidence that time travel was safe.

Her job was to aid Sim. _Like I needed that bunch'a anal retentives to decide this after three hours of debating empty speculations._

 _But why do I have the feeling that was the easiest this mess is going to be?_

~o~

Leo sat in Sim's laboratory. He absently scratched at the bandage over his eye with one finger. It was due to come off today, then he'd find out how much permanent damage there would be.

 _Thirteen, and I'm a wreck._

He sourly eyed the crutch leaning against the long wooden table. Today was the first day they'd let him walk here. He was healing well, incredibly fast by normal standards thanks to these people's high-tech level, but they had gently informed him he would probably have a slight limp from the pinned leg.

 _For the rest of my life..._

He poked at a piece of paper, one of many on the polished surface. His reflection glumly stared back at him.

 _Three days of this. I feel like I'm in school. Only I'm not a student, I'm a lab specimen._

First there had been the medics. Putting him through a number of tests, confirming he didn't have amnesia, that he wasn't insane. At least there weren't any inkblot tests! And who knew what else they had tried to prove or disprove. Evil twin clones or something.

Most of those tests were done after the day he'd first awakened, when he was still a good bit out of it. By dinnertime he was very cranky. To never have been around people, and now having to deal with this overload. Worse, they disturbed him during the night too...

He'd been relieved to escape them the next day, when they'd conveyed him to Sim's domain. But it hadn't been much of an improvement.

Various Time-folk would come through, talking with Old Lord Simultaneous. The concepts were way beyond his comprehension; they were busy drawing diagrams, referring to books, or subjecting him to what they called "arcane research".

Leo heaved a deep sigh, rocking back in the chair, wishing he understood what was going on. He had been folding a piece of paper, bending it. Abstract origami.

With a satisfied grunt at his calculations, Sim turned on his raised platform, finally acknowledging Leo's presence. "Are you ready for some answers?"

Leo nodded, sitting forward, with some excitement. _At last!_ He thought

"Good," Sim continued. "Let me get right to it," he said sitting down at the edge of his platform. "To begin with, the Sceptre is actually an inter-dimensional link. Throughout time and space there are dimensions, void and mathematically complex constructs, and there are Dimensions, many of which are populated, by many and varied beings.. Some even with demons! But all of them are connected together in various physical and temporal ways.

"The Sceptre is both a tool and a safety valve, because events in one dimension can cause real havoc in others. It is an artefact sent though from the Other side, by unknown beings trying to communicate the hazards to the inhabitants on this side, meaning us. Are they gods, angels, aliens? We just don't know," Sim shrugged.

He hopped up, walking back and forth on the platform again, as he sounded more and more like a an eccentric professor. Even if his audience was only Leo.

"But human beings are a species particularly good at sensing those other dimensions. Fortune tellers, clairvoyants, soothsayers, witches. Well, the Sceptre was sent to a time and place where an adept human could pick it up and put it to good use in keeping the delicate equilibrium between dimensions safe from temporal interference or accident.

"Why? Because the multiple universes had reached a time in their collective for various forms of intelligent life to advance to a point of technical invention that made time-travel, and all of its hazards, possible.

"Renet's Sceptre, the one which brought you here, was received by the first of the Time-Lords sometime in the 22nd Century, as you would measure time. Those early time-folk established their base of operations, here on the 79th level of null-time, in a dimension adjacent to your Earth, and from which we could monitor and correct for temporal interventions. As our little bubble of space is _outside of time_ , it is therefore _not_ immediately affected by temporal disasters, such as the one that has caught you."

Leo shuddered. _Disasters!_ He'd been caught in one...that much was for certain.

"Now, we _can_ correct temporal aberrations before there's any erosion to the Continuum and we fall into Chaos. Usually. All we have to do now is track this particular aberration to its source.

"And this remediation is possible because the Sceptre straddles multiple dimensions. It accesses and processes information, much like a computer terminal." Sim paused, meeting Leo's gaze, trying to reassure him. "We _will_ get to the root of this. It'll just take some work to sort through everything. Does this answer your questions so far?"

Leo was on psychological overload. Like he'd been listening to one of Donatello's scientific dissertations. _Does he expect me to swallow this Star Trek stuff?_

He opted for a simple response. "Yes." he said, with a nod of the head.

Sim smiled and turned back to consult with a Lord that entered the hall, bearing a scroll written in unrecognizable characters. And who cast _that_ look at him.

Sighing sadly, Leo sank into the chair, twisting his paper sculpture, tearing it. All of the Time-folk feared him. It wasn't obvious, and they were never rude. They tried to explain things to him, and when it got to be too much, to the point where headaches occurred or he nearly fell asleep from exhaustion, he was returned to his room. They kept him fed, kept him occupied; so he didn't have time to dwell alone in wasting grief, but he sensed it in them. _They fear me._

 _Paradox. That was Renet called I don't feel like a Paradox. I feel like... me._

"Hi Leo," a bright voice surprised him.

"Hi Renet." He didn't look up, just stared at her fuzzy reflection as she stood behind him.

"C'mon, it's time to get that bandage taken off."

 _Great, I'll probably have problems with depth perception for the rest of my life too._

"You coming?"

"Have him back here after lunch, Renet!" Sim called out the instruction without turning from a messily scribbled over chalkboard.

"Of course, Sir Sim!" Renet said with a rude salute.

 _She's doing this for my benefit._

An eraser flew through the air, Leo blocked it without thinking, and it impacted against the table, raising a minor dust cloud.

"Nice move, Leo! Thanks."

Sim growled and turned back to his figures.

For a brief second, Leo's sorrow lifted. He grinned back.

"Maybe you need to start working out again, like you guys -" Renet caught herself. "C'mon, they're waiting."

The gloom dropped over him again. _If she's lying, she's convinced it's the truth. Convinced that she's seen a future me._ He grabbed his crutch and left with her.

 _Paradox indeed! I've never had a dream so detailed. No breaks in continuity. But maybe I'm in limbo...but..._

 _But then, why is my body so busted up if this is a spiritual thing?_

"Do you have another headache?" Renet's voice intruded.

"Huh?"

Renet stopped and bent down, her eyes level with his. "Just remember this Leo: no matter what, I am your friend, always." She smiled tentatively.

 _Would it hurt to believe a little? The other way leads to madness. And if there are such things as mutant turtles and rats - though the rest of the world doesn't know - is this place any more unreal? What is reality? I know I don't like being alone -_

Leo nodded, feeling a tug at the corner of his mouth. He took her offered arm as she escorted him back to his room.

Renet was relieved to hear the damage to the eye was minor and would cause Leo no noticeable problems. She stood behind him, studying the scar across his shell. Looks more like Raph on that score.

 _This Leo is scarred physically, emotionally, and spiritually. But I have to quit thinking like that. Like he's the 'damaged version'. I must accept him - and accept him as his own person._

The doctor left and Renet came around, pulling something out of her pocket. A length of blue cloth. She held it out.

He stared at it, and his smile vanished. Closing his watering eyes, he turned away with a slight sniffle.

 _Oh, Leo. No! Don't do this to me. Don't fall apart again. You've got to be stronger than this. You're capable of more than this borderline catatonic existence!_

The more she thought about it, the angrier she grew. He'd nearly been here a week, and today was the first day she'd seen the barest thing resembling a smile out of him. It was time for him to quit wallowing in grief. He needed a good kick in the pants - in the shell. To deal with it and get on with life.

She whipped the mask around his head, attempting to tie it, not knowing the proper knot, if there was one. _Just how exactly do these things get tied?_

She did not need to guess.

A pair of hands joined her fumbling ones. And a cracked voice spoke, "It goes more like this..." Leo said.

~o~


	4. Chapter 2B

**Paradox: Chapter Two B**

The next morning when Leo awoke, amidst the nightmare-twisted sheets, he saw a pair of familiar items hanging on the wall. His katana.

He slipped from the bed, wincing as he un-kinked his knee, and went to them. Pulling one down, he slipped it from the sheath, fearing what he'd find. But someone had cleaned them, they nearly glowed in the warm light.

He sighed in relief. Splinter -

Splinter just gave us - gave me these a couple of weeks ago.

He hefted the blade, letting familiar patterns flow through him. The blade moved gracefully through the air. He took a step - and a stab of pain dropped him to his knees.

 _DAMMIT!_

He heard a suppressed giggle. "Why thank you for the bow Leo. It's not often I get that kind of respect."

He looked up to see concern behind her sparkling eyes; she wasn't mocking him. "Uh... You're welcome," he said getting up as gracefully as he could. "Thank you for taking care of my swords."

"No prob. You ready for breakfast? It's been far too dull down there. Maybe we ought to start a food fight or something." She winked at him.

For once he found her mood contagious instead of abrasive. "I should warn you, I've got good-" he choked as a familiar wave of anguish rolled over him, threatening to drown him again.

A hand rested on his shoulder as Renet tried to comfort him. "Let it out Leo! It's been tearing you up, you've got quit holding it in."

He clamped down on his emotions, and slipped the sword back into its sheath. Who do you think you are that I should share my grief with you? he almost spat out at her.

I'm a leaf in a tornado, ripped from the tree before the Fall. I just don't know what to do.

His stomach rumbled then, breaking his mood swing. Guess I should eat.

He hung the sword back on the wall and slipped his mask on. Easier to hide behind. Unsure what to say, he just went wordlessly down the hall. Until I can find a way out of here, I'll just have to go where the wind takes me. Or until it rips me apart.

Renet was at the edge of his vision, looking like a kicked puppy. Why did I hurt her? She only wants to help me. Yesterday, this morning, I was ready to accept her as my friend, now I'm treating her as though I'm their captive.

I'm not myself at all. I've never been so moody. But I just don't know what to do. I don't belong here.

I don't belong anywhere...

He meandered through the kitchen, and as always, numerous eyes followed him until he sat at a far table, by a large potted palm tree. They act like I've got the plague, or like I'm one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse or something. Or maybe I'm just being paranoid.

His fingers played with a green frond. Kind of like Miami Vice: palm trees. Wish there was a beach where I could run to. I wonder what the ocean is like there? It's got to be warm, such a nice color...

"Don't mind them," Renet said, sitting down across from him. "It's just that, well, what you represent scares us."

Leo spooned cereal into his mouth. "S'okay. Splinter said the outside world wouldn't understand us."

"Oh yeah. 'Trust no one, keep to the shadows' - Leo! You've got to trust someone sometime! I thought you and me were friends."

"Must have mistaken me for someone else," he smiled sickly.

She looked like he'd stabbed her with his sword. When am I gonna quit acting like Raph?

"I'm sorry Renet," he said as she hastily rose.

She nodded, but fled just the same. Leo finished his breakfast sadly, losing his mind among the interplay of the palm fronds. Highlight and shadow, shades of green. Shapes of crossing leaves, negative space between. Random -

"I've got it!"

Leo bolted upright to stare at Old Sim who was standing on the table before him, eyes dancing with excitement.

"Come with me my dear Turtle, I am ready to present the fruits of my labors," he said as he snatched up Leo's uneaten orange. "Now where did Renet run off too? She really must hear this."

"Uh, I don't know," Leo stammered as Old Sim walked off the edge of the table, using a chair as a step.

Leo followed, confused as always by the contradictory man. At times kindly or fearsome; wise, or seemingly foolish. But always there was a sense of power.

Maybe the act is to keep everyone on their toes.

Anticipation was winding him up. But Sim said nothing more, peeling the orange in a continuous spiral, humming to himself. When they got to the lab, Renet was already there. How did that happen?

He gave her an apologetic smile, ashamed for his earlier rudeness, and sat next to her. Other Time Lords entered as Sim hopped up on the end of the table, munching the orange. He waited with obvious impatience until most had taken seats. Suddenly starting, with no opening words, the room hushed instantly; Sim's voice filling it, holding everyone's attention.

"I began my investigations with the Sceptre's refusal to heal Leonardo. But one has to understand that function first to see where it lead me.

"The Sceptre heals by registering information from all time lines on an individual, then restores the ideal current pattern. However, two identical persons in the same time frame will 'resonate' and magnify temporal aberrations."

Sim looked directly at Leo. "The Sceptre wouldn't heal you here to ensure there are not two identical Leonardos."

A brief pause followed as Sim chomped on an orange section, letting the information settle with everyone. After the muttering stilled, he continued. "Two Leonardos? Well this led me further to find Renet's Sceptre wasn't the first, or the only one that the beings on the Other side had attempted to send through. There was one major failed attempt in 1908, Siberia. The unexplained Tunguska Event, when a large part of the landscape was mysteriously devastated. Inter-dimensional physics are dangerous, and something went very wrong there.

"Supposedly the event wasn't investigated until 1921, but a small and undocumented investigative team _did_ visit the site earlier. And a greedy and unscrupulous member of the expedition found an unusual artefact at the center of the destruction. The cad in question didn't connect the Sceptre he found with the destructive event, but hid it away as an obviously ancient and probably valuable archaeological discovery.

"The object was smuggled across Europe, and was on its way to America, when the smuggler missed the boat when the Titanic sailed. So it went on another ship to early 20th century New York.

"Those possessing the Sceptre had come to believe there was a curse associated with it, and it passed through a succession of hands and a couple of World Wars before someone eventually recognized it was killing its owners with emanations of lethal radiation, not magic. So the damaged Sceptre was encased in lead and stored for future study among the belongings of the old man who possessed it at that point."

Sim paused to finish the last slice of orange and wipe his hands clean on a handkerchief. Allowing another brief pause for his story to sink in.

"A decade or two later, the damaged Sceptre came to the attention of a scientist who just knew it had to be valuable because of its unusual properties. Evidence, he believed, of Extraterrestrial Origin. But before going public, he decided to study it. Having access to equipment and laboratories at a New York university, he subjected it to secretive but intense study. He wanted to know what the glowing sands inside the crystal were, and to find out, he tried to open it by drilling a hole with a laser beam.

"And that was his Big Mistake. Once the crystal was breached, it was equivalent to setting off a nuclear bomb. The safety valve between dimensions had been breached, just like Tunguska."

Leo's stomach dropped. I was right! Someone did nuke New York!

"Thus we have a history that didn't happen. A Paradox." Sim paused and his eyes bored into Leo. "And you are the keystone Leonardo, you are the Nexus!"

All eyes riveted to him. Leo panicked at the focused attention. But a rising anger dominated it. Hands gripping the table tightly, Leo fought to control his emotions. He lost. "So you're saying this is my fault. That because of me, I'm stuck here and everyone I care about is dead." Rage seized him and squeezed hard. Trapped! Need space! Need air!

Leo stood up, roughly shoving the chair back with his foot. "I am sick of playing your games. I didn't kill everyone and bring myself here!"

"Leo! That's not -"

"Leave me alone! How can there be two of me? I'm not helping you with this madness anymore!" he angrily stared them all down, and left, vowing to not speak to any of them. I want my family! I want my HOME! I want MY LIFE BACK!

~o~

Leo returned to his room, shut the door and dropped into a chair. When a gentle knocking sounded, he threw himself into a noisy, whirling double-bladed workout, leg be damned.

But soon the rage covering his condition wore away, the swords slipped from his fingers and clanged against the floor. He dropped exhausted onto the bed. "Nexus. That's a Dan Fogelberg song," he cried inanely, the words returning to him as he fell into sleep.

He had been walking in darkness, stopping when he felt the dirt change to wet beneath his feet. Water! It was coming from somewhere! A light began to glow, revealing Michelangelo, shell hideously cracked, insides spilled out. He'd almost stepped on - him! But dark water blissfully covered the sight, and kept rising. He could not move, and panicked as the wet blackness covered his head. _Drowning!_ Can't breathe!

Leo woke with a scream, straining against the sheet tightly twisted around him. _"Nexus..."_

But how could it have been my fault?

Tying to break the agonizing mental spiral, he looked at the clock, a delicate work of art from an unknown place.

It's dinner time!

I slept the day away!

But I still feel tired. Worn thin...

Deciding not to think about the implications of hiding in sleep, he sneaked into the kitchen, grabbed food and fled to his room. Sunk deep within himself, he said nothing, met no one's gaze, acknowledged no one. So successful was he, he couldn't recall if he had even passed Old Sim or Renet.

He ate, picking up a book he had been reading. But the words just passed through him. He wished he had a television. He would have enjoyed the mindless fun of an A-Team episode, or Magnum P.I. Having nothing else to entertain himself with, he returned to the book, staving off the things he wanted to avoid thinking about.

Hours later, he'd finished it. It was late, but he still couldn't fall asleep. Earlier that's all he had done. How ironic.

Every night was either the nightmares or his churning mind unable to find sleep. With the new implications, it made it even worse now.

He slipped off the bed to settle himself into a meditative pose on the floor. But it didn't work. It only brought Splinter even more to mind. He quickly banished his sorrow, turned it toward anger. All those insane things the Time Folk had tried to sell him. "Yeah right. Like I'm some Nexus. My brothers and my sensei are dead. These loonies tell me they they've seen me. That I've seen them. That I've been to the past, been back to the blasted dinosaurs. Time travel paradoxes - that's not possible. There is only me! I know what I have been through! They say I'm not insane, it's not amnesia. So what is it?!"

Leo stopped in surprise. He was wandering the hallways! At what point had he started roaming? Now he was before the door to the Sacred Chamber.

 _This is nuts. It's late and I should go back to bed._

His fingers touched the carved wood, warm and inviting. He opened the door, entering like some animal pulled along on its migratory route.

Other than the soft glow of the Sceptre, it was dark, a comforting dark. Like Splinter's meditation chamber...

A dream-memory returned. Splinter stood before him. "My son, is not death to be accepted?" And before Leo could say anything, the Rat shrivelled down to a horrific mass of hair and bone.

Leo choked at the memory of the corruption. _You're saying I should accept it and go on. But I can't! This place - this place is some Hell of Time Twisted. Old Sim makes it sound like it's my fault! Like it's some damned destiny thing! What did I do? What do I do?!_

He sat on the floor with his head in his hands. Tears slipped through his fingers. He was too young, not ready for this weight. More of Splinter's words returned to him. Goading him to do something _. Fear. Inaction kills._

Leo hopped up, shaking with tension. He stalked up to the Sceptre, the source of his doubt and frustration. "They're lying to me. I'm really a prisoner in some research lab, and they're studying me. Watching my reactions. Well I have had enough!" He reached out and grabbed The Thing before his rational side could make him hesitate. "This one's for you Raph," he smiled bitterly, raising the cursed object. He would smash it on the floor, breaking it, to prove that all of this was a hoax.

The Sceptre started downward. A slender hand latched onto his arm.

"No Leo. Don't," Renet said softly.

He turned away, but her hand had closed above his on the Sceptre. Jerking the Sceptre, he twisted, but she jumped with it, hanging on.

A pleasant tingling sensation swept up his arm, his vision blurred.

 _Time -_

 _slowed..._

Neither of them would let go of the Sceptre. Renet gracefully swung around to face him, and then he was between, looking at their struggle time-stretched in the slowing. Caught in the swirl, his speeding mind outstripped his body. The colors blurred, blended. Dissolved into bright motes of an Impressionist painting. He felt someone else with him. Within him. Images not of his own flashed by. And yet, impossibly, they were his...

 _His brothers! Splinter! Alive!_

 _Places he had never seen. Things he had never done. People he had never met..._

 _And this other image of himself knew them all._

 _Renet knew them all._

 _That IS me! A bigger me!... And my brothers!_

 _I'm on a rooftop?! Splinter would shell us for this!_

 _And that woman- it's Renet, only younger- she's changed! Ha! What a klutz! Tripping on her cape._

 _Hello - who's that? A glowing head?! I called him "chrome dome"?!_

 _Whoa! That's - that's what happened when I was saved from drowning?! That's what it looked like?..._

 _What's this place?_

 _A forest... warriors - medieval warriors! And we are fighting them?_

 _A horned man? Savanti Romero? What is this nonsense?_

 _Now - we're sneaking into a castle. More fighting. Wow, we're awesome!_

 _No! Savanti's using the Sceptre! He's blinded us - he's going to kill us -_

 _The Head - it's - it's Old Sim! Ha! Savanti can't mess with him!_

 _"Butthead?" But Sim's not. He's really - he's sending us back! To -_

 _An apartment? What're we doing here? There's Renet again. But who's the other woman? We act as though we know her._

 _Uh oh! Here we go again!_

 _Now where? Dinosaurs! Gah! These things are REAL!_

 _Savanti again! He's got the Sceptre! And he's taken Renet captive!_

 _I'm climbing a tower of bones? We're fighting a bone-armored Savanti! This is crazy! I'm cutting Renet free - climbing a thin construct? And Savanti is coming for me! I - jump away? He grabs the Sceptre - he's blasted! And the construct is falling!_

 _Camping in pre-history? Cooking a huge fish. We're goofing off, us and Renet -_

 _NO! THIS CAN'T BE REAL!_

 _They are dead! I yelled for Raph to wake up. Threw pebbles at - but Raph was... gone. Mike... Mike, was - was broken open! Don was buried alive. And Splinter was crushed. I was alone. Trapped and alone. No one would be looking for me. No one would be coming to help me..._

 _THAT is the reality! I should have died too!_

 _Leo shrunk within himself. But something had found him, someone had helped him. And now she tore him apart. "Liar!" he screamed, fighting the urge to cry. "Quit tormenting me!"_

 _This is all mirrors reflecting mirrors. All illusions of me!_

 _"Stop this! Why couldn't I be with them? Why was I the only one to survive? To have no one to -"_

 _Turn to...turn around. What if this is the reality...?_

Beyond Renet he sensed a vast _Presence_. It was everywhere, the same one he had felt when he'd been drowning. If Renet showed him the truth, and deep down there was something that resonated with what he saw, knew he saw himself truly.

Leonardo opened his eyes to meet Renet's, to find his sorrows reflected, refracted. Dissolved. She had shown him the Truth. So, he thought then, so that means -

I _am_ Paradox: the _Nexus._

"The Sceptre wouldn't heal you here, in order to ensure that there are not two identical beings called Leonardo..." Renet said softly.

Leo blinked. and blinked again following that line of logic and led him to -

But that means - _I can save them! Raph, Splinter, Don and Mike. They are supposed to be alive! What happened was a mistake!_

Wild hope swept him up with the possibility and he cast off his days of lightless gloom.

He spoke aloud, but the excited words passed in lockstep mind to mind through the Sceptre. "Destiny is not a matter of chance, it IS a matter of choice! I can fix the timeline and we will be togeth-"

A jolting shock, a sensation of punishment from the Presence ran through him, breaking their contact with purposeful, unmistakable intent. Reflexively, Leo let go of the Sceptre. He stepped back, resenting the smackdown, rubbing at his hand, but inside he was pure defiance. He had a goal now, a direction to focus on. One way or another, I will find it, he vowed. I will!

After one last glaring look at the Sceptre, he spun, turning his back on it and left the Chamber of the Sacred Sands of Time.

~o~

Renet was left alone holding the Sceptre, a tear slipping down her cheek for the utter depth of loneliness and heart-sickness she had perceived in the exchange. As Leo had learned her Truth, she had learned his. The conflict between the two made her dizzy. Only now did she truly understand this Leonardo.

The Sceptre's warning was still buzzing in her mind. Tampering with the past for personal reasons went against all the dearly held tenets of the Time Folk. It was not allowed, no matter the sorrow or pain involved.

She willed the Sceptre back to its place and went to her rooms. That old rebelliousness was rising again. The same disobedient urges that had made her take the Sceptre, and landed her in... _New York. 1986_.

But Leo had shown her a different New York, and even if it had only been the sewers, it was enough. That vision of Raphael's corpse haunted her, and the smashed shell that had been Michelangelo -

Shivering, she pushed the images from her mind. This Leo was not her Leo. Not from her past. Not from his past. _Paradox_.

So why had the Sceptre brought back Leonardo? Why not someone, anyone else? She thought about what had occurred when both of them touched the Sceptre...

Of course! It was obvious now!

 _Leo was an Adept!_ Maybe not the most gifted, and definitely not trained; but it was his own natural talent that had summoned the Sceptre to draw him here. It made him the manifestation of the Paradox: the Nexus. Someone that -

Someone that _she_ could recognize as such...

No matter that Leonardo's reasons were wrong; the timeline had to be fixed. Otherwise, her life was a lie. Built on moments that never happened. And beyond her, beyond Leo, Raph and the others - just how many other lives were affected?

She hopped off her bed, her fists clenched. "I may have made mistakes. And sure there's things I'd have done differently. But dammit! That's my past. Overall I happen to like it a lot. And I'd like to keep it! It's time to shake up this place..."

Renet burst into Sim's lab full of righteous fury. Sim looked up from a book. "Ah, Renet," he smiled.

"Sim! We have to talk."

"Of course we do."

His calm presence made her angrier. She trembled with the intensity of her emotions, at the audacity of what she was doing. "Sim - " she began -

"We really should find Leonardo and get the two of you straightened out before you do something else that's equally rash." He winked at her.

Renet blew up. _"You know, damn you!"_

"Yes. Parents always know," he sighed, standing as he placed a marker on the page titled 'Siberian space disaster'. "I have a theory I think it's time to share."

"Forget theories and laws! We have to fix this! What I Saw - can't be! He can't be -" She towered over the Time Lord, but felt far more like a little child there before him. "Leo's an Adept, Sim..." her voice trailed off in near tears.

"I know. It was his call the Sceptre heard. Oh, Leo doesn't realize that he was the one who summoned it. But - I'm delaying. Come, and I will tell you what I've found. I think it will get this whole null void back in line. And it's going to get the two of you out of my hair."

"Hair?"

Sim shook his finger at her. "Young lady," he warned and strolled out. But despite his affectionate-father tone, his eyes had been deadly serious.

Before she followed him, Renet spared another glance at the book, murmured the title aloud. 'Siberian space disaster'. And she shivered.

"Guess I got what I wanted," she said to the empty room.

 _So why am I so apprehensive?_

~o~

Leonardo sat deep in meditation, the naked sword before him gleaming in the candlelight. He was weighing his options on escape.

He hadn't seen any doors that led "Outside". Maybe they were hidden, or from some room he hadn't been in yet. The ceiling? The floor? He walked through _"this place"_ in his mind.

 _What if there are no doors Out, no normal Exits? What if this really is another dimension?_

 _And the Sceptre is real. I can't deny what happened with it and Renet. Or else I'm admitting I'm insane._

 _It brought me here, it can take me home. But to get it, I'm gonna have to steal it._

 _Stealing is wrong. But I'm captured, and I need it to escape. These people are the enemy. I have to get back to my family. I can make it right. But -?_

"You are wondering what it is you have to do to fix the timeline."

It was a voice of power that interrupted him. _"Splinter?"_ Leo called out with his mind. _Hope beyond hope, the spirit of his Sensei!_

"No, Leonardo, just Old Lord Simultaneous." The old man's voice was tinged with sorrow, and it brought Leo blinking back from his mediation to see Sim sitting across from him. Renet stood behind the Lord.

Leo leaned back in panic.

"Relax, son, I'm not here to stop you. I have the answers you seek."

"More accusations you mean," Leo crossed his arms, defiance in his sneer _. I'm not your son._

"Far from it. I know how you got here. And," Sim's finger poked his chest, "I also know how you can fix the damage."

Leo met him eye to eye. It's true! He means it! "Tell me."

"First, can we get off the floor? I have a lot to say, and these old bones don't do well on stone."

Murmuring apologies, Leo and Renet helped him up and into a chair, more out of courtesy than any real need. Sim was really quite nimble.

"Relax," Sim admonished. "We've got a little time yet."

And while Leo tried to comply, to sit less stiffly, he'd heard a bitter-sweet undertone that kept him on edge. _What is it? What must I do?_

"I have since delved deeper, and found the truth to be worse than I had imagined," Sim began. "There was a time ripple of some sort that caused the smuggler to miss the Titanic. He made it to America on another ship, and so, years later, we get the scientist who drilled the hole that levelled the city. And while the local effects of New York's destruction were minimal when compared to all other things, in truth, at the center of the event, a tiny black hole was created. It fell to the center of the earth's gravity well in accordance with the physical laws of that Dimension. A black hole is not a good thing to have at the core of a planet, and it would eventually destroy the entire Earth." Sim paused, leaning back in the chair, to let that sink in.

"And so - further along that time aberration, the planet wouldn't be there when the Sceptre - _our_ Sceptre was sent through," he said grandly gesturing at Renet. "You can guess what comes next..."

Leo nodded, _the end of here, too._

Sim leaned forward, changing to a more serious tone. "Fortunately, we - here in our time protected bubble - _can_ do something about it. But we must act before our own dimension erodes away, leaving the multiple universes subject to all the chaotic interventions they won't be able to prevent without us."

"So what exactly do I do to stop this?" Leo asked, as he unconsciously knelt in the formal position he used with Splinter. There was no doubt he would go. It was bad enough New York had been nuked. But worse, the _whole planet_ was going to be pulled down after it, and _everything_ else - _everywhere_ \- after that.

 _So many things so connected!_ He spared a quick glance at Renet. She was clearly and deeply dismayed by the consequences Sim had outlined.

"You - _must_ prevent the damaged Sceptre from reaching New York. Failing that, you must retrieve and neutralize it before that curiosity-seeking scientist destroys it in his ignorance."

Leo's cheeks flushed at the focused attention from Sim. Why did Sim seem to ignore Renet? The Sceptre was _hers_...

"Will there be anyone to help me?" Leo didn't understand completely, but he knew he didn't want to be alone.

"Renet will be going," Sim said matter-of-factly. "And I'll be supplying you with the means to time travel. Renet's Sceptre is still not functioning perfectly, due to the effects of the damaged Sceptre. But we have confiscated other numerous devices from would-be temporal meddlers. And I believe I have one that will serve your needs."

From his robes, Sim produced a three-inch dark metal cube, the carved sides lending it a Star Wars-style appearance. "I have set it to take a roundabout inter-dimensional route to your destination, or destinations if needed, at peak chances for your success. Be aware that your arrival could cause further disturbing ripples, and you will not be able to double back. Your quarry might not be as simple to catch as you hope, but I have faith the two of you can accomplish what you must do."

He handed the cube to Renet, and placing a hand on each their shoulders, nodded to them, "May the Sacred Sands of Time guide you." And then Old Sim left, a teared-gleam at the edge of his eye.

"He's like Splinter in some ways," Leo said in admiration. "He feels like a grandfather to me."

Renet nodded in agreement, rotating the cube with her fingers, the Cube that would take him Home.

~o~

It was two more days before they were ready to travel.

In addition to her own preparations, Renet had wanted Leo to have further time to heal; to settle down before they jumped into danger. Now that the goal was clear, he was changed: happy and outgoing.

Leo had told her he didn't care about being a hero, he just wanted to get back to Splinter and his brothers. Of how he could hardly wait to tell them his adventures. _Ah youth_ , she smiled to herself. The mentally crippling horrors of their deaths were banished for him.

He trained hard, pushing himself to be ready, to learn to compensate for his leg. And to burn-up energy that quickly would have turned to impatience and frustration when it had become apparent they weren't setting out immediately.

She would have liked to delay a few more days, but there was the danger that if they waited too long, the rippling, erosional damage would make their travel more dangerous. _So today it is._

Renet walked into the dining hall for breakfast. As expected, Leo was already there, engaged in animated conversations with some of the younger time folk.

"Leo, we leave as soon as you can be ready."

He bolted upright, his features quivering with anticipation. "I - I'm ready anytime! Just let me get my - "

Renet laughed. "Whoa! Slow down. I need to eat first. Then we can go. Finish up here. Say all of your good-byes." His eyes were bright as he choked up with emotions. He'd made friends fast here. Fear had transformed into curiosity over the Time Folk's mutant guest. Even Old Sim had come to enjoy his company.

Renet laughed as the group cried out against Leo leaving them. "We just got to know you!" "But you were gonna show me-"

 _I have grown up,_ she realized with a shock. _I'm... mature?_ She snorted _. Never. I'll still stick my tongue out at Old Sim._

"I'll catch you later," Renet laughed as she went to get something to eat. News spreads fast, she noted as the crowd around Leo increased. Others wished her luck or safe journey. A couple gave her a haughty stare.

 _Like I'm still the snot-nosed brat. But it's the fate of our beloved null void after all. And it's me that's gonna go. Some people just can't handle it._

And I was worried about being too grown-up for my own good?

She'd no sooner sat down when a short figure stopped next to her. "You weren't planning on sneaking out on me were you?"

Eye to eye with the accusing Sim, she stared at him, just letting one eyebrow rise up.

"What?!" he continued testily. "You think I'd chase you through time and space? Just to get a decent good-bye from someone I have treated and cherished as a daughter? That I'd risk - "

She suddenly reached out and hugged him, ignoring his protests about being hugged in public. Then she let him go, laughing as he straightened his ruffled attire.

"You never told him the rest, did you?" she said.

Sim looked surprised a moment. Then recovered. "You mean about being an Adept?... No."

Renet nodded. Must have a reason somewhere. "So do you think we can handle this?"

"Oh, I expect you'll get into trouble. Your Secret Admirer on the Council wanted to see someone else charged with this Great Responsibility, but," Sim shrugged. "The Sceptre Chose."

"And?" Renet prompted.

"I think you both will do fine. See you later, afterwards, Renet, and _do_ be careful about creating any more time ripples... Please?"

"Yes father," she said to his retreating back. "I promise I won't skip any stones across the time-stream."

Sim groaned softly, and Renet turned her attention back to her plate. _Before I get so wound-up I can't eat._

 _~o~_

Leo was standing in his room, looking around, trying to imprint every detail in his mind. He imagined himself telling this to Splinter and his brothers. _They probably won't believe me!_

He tugged slightly at the straps to his sword harness, re-settling into it. He'd gotten used to the open and peaceful environment here. Sure there was political posturing, but no one locked doors or carried weapons.

But it was a place where he didn't have to hide what he was. Where he felt accepted. Going back to the sewers will be...confining after this.

He lifted the small backpack off the floor. It contained a few travel necessities he'd wanted to have on hand. Slipping it over his left shoulder, he walked out and almost ran over Old Lord Simultaneous!

"Sorry," Leo apologized, helping Sim regain his balance.

"It's ok," Sim said. Taking Leo's hand, he clasped it between his own, "Safe journey to you, Leonardo. And don't worry. I'm sure you'll do fine."

"Thank you Sim, for everything. I'm sorry I was so rude to you at first."

Sim shook his head, "Sometimes it's hard to accept the truth. And being a Paradox isn't easy for anyone. Good-bye." He squeezed Leo's hand before letting go, then walked away humming to himself.

Leo stood a moment in shock. I don't believe it! He's crying!

"I'll never forget you!" Leo called to Sim. Then he turned and went the other way.

To the Chamber of the Sacred Sands of Time. Destiny was waiting.

~o~


	5. Chapter 3

**Paradox - Chapter Three**

"I still think it's kind of morbid. This guy has to drown!"

"The alternative is far worse, Leo. Don't get me started."

"But drowning isn't the best way to go. I know."

Renet shook her head. "Just keep your eyes open."

Leo frowned up at her from beneath the fedora. It was a good thing the weather was brisk. It gave him an easy excuse to be bundled up like he was.

The cube had dumped them here, in Southampton, England. The morning of April 10, 1912. The day the _Titanic_ sailed, on a cold but fair day.

Had it only been hours ago that Renet had entered the Sacred Sands chamber, fussing in her most unusual attire? He'd been laughing until she thrust a pile of clothes at him...

"Renet!" he'd complained. "How'm I supposed to sneak around like this? My swords will never fit under - "

"Leo? Shut up. I thought we went over this."

"Yeah. I jump the dude while you distract him." Maybe he'd shown a little too much enthusiasm...

"Right. But you can't be going around like this," Renet gestured, silly purse dangling from her hand.

"Like what?"

"Well... looking like a mutant ninja turtle." The word 'naked' hung in the air, unsaid. Or maybe it was 'freak'.

"I'll be discreet," he said, mouth turned downward as he held up the pants. Never worn pants before...leggings occasionally. But pants? Not to mention the shoes...

"Not good enough. Get dressed so we can go. Put your gear in the suitcase. Aunt Emma went through some trouble to make those fit you."

 _Oh, I get it.._. he thought as she turned to check over the baggage, including the trunk large enough to hold him if Plan A failed. _If you have to suffer so do I._

"It's gonna be cold there. And I can't guarantee what kind of cover you'll have to move from."

He sighed. She had a point there. After divesting himself of his "normal attire", he'd begun with the pants. Rather, began by looking at them with an unveiled lack of enthusiasm.

Renet smiled sweetly. Evilly. "One leg and then the other. Do you need help getting dressed?"

His retort had been cut off as the pants conspired to trip him...

The wind played with the scarf, momentarily blocking his view, bringing him back the present. The past. Whatever. Renet snickered, "You're so cute!"

His growl was lost in a mouthful of gray, black and white yarn.

"Now you're sure you're up to handling him?"

"Yes. I'm thirteen. I've been training since I can remember. Sensei would not have given me my swords if he didn't think I was ready." Sensei... it hurt less to think about him that way. To avoid names. _I'm going to save them. I'm going to save them. I'm go-_

"Damn."

"What?"

Renet didn't answer right away. Leo went up on his toes, straining to see over the heads of the people milling around on the dock. The _Titanic_ had drawn quite a crowd-not only the passengers and their families, but the entire town seemed to have gathered to see the massive ship off on its first voyage. On its only voyage-Leo gave up, and hopped up onto the trunk for a clear view.

He didn't see anything before Renet grabbed his arm. "Get down!" she hissed. "People will see you!"

"I thought that's what the clothes were for," Leo protested, but let himself be tugged off the trunk. The unfamiliar shoes kept him off-balance just enough that he was afraid he'd fall off anyway.

"He just went on board," Renet said quietly. Her face was pale.

"But Sim said he DIDN'T get on the _Titanic_ , that that's part of what went wrong, didn't he?" Leo kept his voice down with an effort. "So it's already starting to work out the way we want it to-he got on the ship!"

"Yeah," Renet answered slowly, eyes on the huge bulk at the dock. It made ants out of the teeming throngs in its shadow. "But it's not enough that he get on the ship - he has to go down with it, too. Or at least the Sceptre does," she amended hastily, with a glance at Leo.

Leo looked over at the large bulk of the _Titanic_. It dwarfed all other ships in the harbor. He looked over the slow lines of people waiting to board, and his jaw firmed. "Then-we need to get on that ship, too."

~o~

Renet tipped the porter with the first bill she found in her ridiculous purse. It must have been a good tip, judging by the way the man's eyes widened. "Thank you, miss!"

"Oh, no, thank you," she simpered at him, and closed the door firmly on his offers of further assistance. She leaned against the door and fought down the wave of - depression? nausea? In her time travels, she'd met many people whose deaths were already known to her. But it was a different feeling to realize most of the people she would deal with today would be dead in four days.

She hadn't heard any noise from the trunk, and it worried her-Sim's assistants hadn't forgotten to drill air holes, or something, had they? She knocked on the lid. "It's safe; c'mon out."

The lid popped free, and Leo stood up, stretching and squinting at the light from the window.

"I was starting to get nervous-thought you'd left me for another time traveler," she teased, to cover her worry.

"Thought we were never gonna get through that line," he grumbled.

Renet flopped down onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. "They weren't sure what to do with me - in this time, rich young ladies don't travel alone." She couldn't quite pinpoint the source of her anxiety - something was wrong, and it was bigger than the knowledge that she was on the _Titanic_.

Leo was examining the bathroom. "There's no, um..."

Renet grinned at him. "Toilet?" She reached under the bed. "Remember what time we're in. They still use..." and she dragged the chamber pot out into view.

The look of dismay on his face made her laugh so hard that she popped a seam in her dress.

The ship got underway while she was changing her dress. The crowds on the decks above waved and cheered, and the larger crowds on the dock responded with even louder cheers. Renet shuddered. _A few days, and all of this will be at the bottom of the Atlantic..._ She tucked a stray ribbon-end back into her hair and surveyed herself in the bathroom mirror. "Bleh," she said to her reflection, and walked out before she could think too much about how she looked.

Leo stood on the couch, his face in the sunlight of the opened porthole, breathing in the sea air, despite the chill. " 'Do you know what it's like to live your life underground, to almost never see the sun? To live in a city with so many people above you, yet never meet a one?' It's something Mike wrote..."

Renet just stood without answering, smoothing the wrinkles from her hated dress. It was one of the pains of time travel: the ever changing, usually over-fussy women's fashions. Studying the space heater controls, she avoided the question. Renet couldn't bring herself to counter with what it was like to never be in just one time and place. To know of other dimensions, other sentient species; people that were either unborn, living or dead depending on When she was. Her mind had maintained the bimbo attitude to protect her sanity until she matured enough to handle it. "No," she said. "Being isolated from others isn't an option in the Null Void."

There were three long blasts from the horns. Leo gripped the porthole in excitement, watching as best he could the casting off proceedings. From her angle, Renet watched him watch the dock, the crowds that cheered even louder in answer to the great horns. She felt the subtle change as the ship began its journey.

Renet touched his shoulder gently. "Time for me to move about and mingle. See if I can't locate our friend."

She cast one last glance in the mirror, poking an overly loose strand of hair back in place. Mixed with the soft rumble through the floor, she heard the deep sigh. "Believe me, I wish I could take you with me. Despite what we know is going to happen, this is a piece of history, an experience almost no one gets. So enjoy your first cruise. I'll come back with some munchies, I promise." Renet took two steps to the door, nearly tripping in the constricting skirts as the floor lurched. "Uh, and don't get seasick!" she said sternly, trying to cover her less than lady-like exit.

On the other side of the door, she could hear him laughing as she tucked the key in her purse. "Glad you find skirts funny," she muttered. "Ah well, guess that's what I get for teasing him earlier."

Within a couple of strides, she settled into a lady's walk. Prim and proper. This is the early 1900's. She nodded regally as she passed a couple, and went up the stairway to the second class promenade. She couldn't suppress a shiver as she thought, _this ship is doomed. These people... so few of them will survive._

Moving along the deck, Renet scanned for the man. Doubting he might be here, believing he'd likely be holed up in his room, guarding the object, she would try anyway. New York of 1983 was a future wisp of a nightmare. The coming one that she would avoid distracted her. _The band that is playing, will continue to play merry tunes as the ship goes down. Resigned to fate, gentlemen will put on their finest evening attire, playing cards as chaos goes on around them. As the too few lifeboats become the focus of the scramble to live. Some will not even be full, some will not even pick up people from the cold waves. A wife will refuse her place in one to stay with her husband. The engineers will keep working, the lights will shine until the end. The worst, and the best, of humanity under tragedy will come to pass._

 _And I must see that this man with the Sceptre is part of it. Though I will be granted escape..._

The crowd still gathered at the rails cried out, the tone different from the happy calls during the casting-off. Renet glanced down the long deck and saw some of the men detach from the clusters at the rail and move away toward something more exciting.

She nodded to herself, as she heard someone shout, "That ship is gonna hit us!" Oh, yes, she thought, the liner New York is swinging this way... _Titanic_ 's great mass had caused the smaller liner to snap its mooring ropes, and a collision seemed imminent.

The crowd visibly tensed. Renet stood back, out of the way. A passing steward told her reassuringly, "It's nothing, ma'am; it's all under control."

Renet fought the urge to aim a kick at his backside as he hurried away. "Is that what you'll be saying on Sunday night, too?" she muttered under her breath. If she tried anything as undignified as a kick, her skirts would undoubtedly trip her up.

~o~

The near-collision with the _New York_ slowed _Titanic'_ s true departure by more than an hour. Renet planned to use the time to her advantage by searching every public area of the ship. But it turned out to be completely unnecessary.

As she entered the first class lounge, the steward who had helped her with her bags rushed up to greet her. "May I help you again, miss?"

The money-hunger in his face and voice was subtle, but unmistakable. _What have I done by encouraging this idiot,_ Renet wondered, even as she murmured a polite refusal of his offer. He turned away, disappointment clear under his carefully neutral expression. Suddenly she realized-"Wait! There is something...I'm looking for someone, a man. His name is Howard Irwin. I-I was to meet him here, as a surprise..." she trailed off, and looked at the steward with calculated helplessness. She resisted batting her eyelashes at him.

He saw her to a table, and hurried off to check the passenger manifests. Renet sighed, and wondered if she should continue the search without waiting for a response. _Surely I can find him, if I just ask enough people...there's only, what, 2200 of them on the ship?_ Of course, there was always the possibility that he was locked in his cabin for security. But if that were the case, the crew would be aware of it before anyone else.

A woman strolled by Renet's table, leading a small boy by the hand. The child was struggling not to cry. "Now, Tommy, you know your father and I would never let anything hurt you. Why, we're sailing on this ship because she's the safest one in the world! This ship is unsinkable..."

Renet saw the sheen of tears in the boy's eyes, and felt her throat close. So many of those around her were going to die, and she couldn't save even one!

It would be so easy. All she had to do was convince the captain, or the architect, or the man-what was his name?-J. Bruce Ismay, that was it, and someone would take greater care on Sunday night...or she could insist that the lookouts get a new pair of binoculars when the ship reached Cherbourg, to replace the lost pair. Then _Titanic_ would be able to avoid the fatal collision, and all of the passengers would arrive in New York on the 17th, proud of having been the _Titanic_ 's first passengers, but ready to get on with their lives.

It would be so easy. And it would never work.

Renet knew, from bitter and painful experience, the penalties of messing with the Timelines. It was the first lesson every child learned in the Null Void-nothing must be allowed to interfere with the flow of the Times Past. Grave punishments were ordered for anyone who even tried it. In her own cabin was the result of some type of interference, the Paradox Leo. If anyone in her world had been guilty of the anomaly that had caused his appearance, justice would have been swift, and lethal.

What was less commonly known was that it simply wasn't possible to interfere, in most cases. It had been tried, by the early inhabitants of the Null Void-pioneers who believed that they could re-direct the course of History, and change all that was tragic or awful into beneficial events. They discovered, to their horror, that nothing they did made any large difference. And when they did succeed in changing History, they only made things worse.

Philip of Macedon was assassinated, to prevent the huge loss of life and culture that resulted from his drive across early Europe. But instead of creating the peace the early Time Master intended, it only allowed Philip's son Alexander to rise up in his father's place. And Alexander the Great's advance across the Middle East and India destroyed far more than Philip's worst depredations in Europe would have.

The Time Mistress who thought she could save the tsarevich Alexei Romanov from his accidental death at the hands of his would-be rescuers only succeeded in triggering the chain of events that led to the execution of the entire Russian Imperial family.

These events, and many others, had been seared into Renet's mind as part of her training, and were confirmed by what she felt through the Sceptre. It wasn't possible for her to redirect so massive an event as the sinking of an ocean liner, if that was a natural part of the Timeline. Even if she tried it, she would only create a far worse tragedy.

Though from her seat in the first class lounge, surrounded by bright and beautiful people who would soon be dead, Renet couldn't easily think of anything more tragic.

The steward hurried across the lounge to her, a list clutched in one hand and a small frown on his face. "Miss-are you sure his name is Howard Irwin? I do see his name here; he purchased his ticket just before we sailed, so I don't have complete information...but Miss, he seems to be in the steerage area. Surely this can't be the man you're looking for?

Renet clenched her hands in her lap to stop herself from ripping the paper away from him. "What cabin is he in?"

The steward shook his head, and answered slowly, "It's-I simply cannot make it out. Someone has smeared the ink. I'm terribly sorry, Miss; I'll see if someone else can find out-"

"Oh, no, that's-that's not necessary, really," Renet had a sudden vision of her quarry slipping off the _Titanic_ at Cherbourg, as soon as he knew he was being pursued. "I'm sure I'll run into him soon. Thank you so much, but-I'll just keep looking."

She stood up to leave. The steward bowed and melted away from her side, disappointment written across his features-whether at his failure to produce the man or at Renet's failure to tip him again, she wasn't sure. But just as she braced herself to begin strolling the decks again in her ridiculous skirts, Howard Irwin walked in.

If he was a steerage passenger, no one would know it by looking at him. He was dressed in the kind of understated clothing worn by men who are not wealthy, but will never have to worry about money, either. He had a quiet, unassuming manner that made Renet think instantly of the sort of men who were the backbone of the growing middle-class; a man who was capable of mingling with either first class or the steerage passengers, yet would never truly be integrated into either group.

Renet sat back down again, abruptly. _Uh-oh. Now that I've got him in my sights, how do I handle him?_

Not, apparently, by exercising her feminine charms on him, as she had done on the steward. Even as she watched, a portly man strolled over with his matronly wife on his arm and his teenage daughter in tow. Irwin was the soul of politeness, as introductions were made. But there was something about him that made the well-bred young lady withdraw to as far a distance as courtesy allowed.

 _I could learn a lot about blending in from watching this man,_ Renet realized. In fact, the more she studied him, the more it seemed everything about Irwin had been carefully chosen to make him as inconspicuous as possible, even while it allowed him to blend in with the crowds of wealthy passengers.

She nibbled on a fingernail as she thought. Irwin wandered around the lounge, greeting and being greeted by an assortment of the upper-crust passengers. _I've got to keep him on this ship until we're out to sea. Until there's no way he can get off the ship..._

"But dear, I'm famished!" a velvet-clad beauty said clearly, as she strolled past Renet's table. "Breakfast was hours ago-it must be nearly tea-time..."

Renet realized it had been a long time since her last meal, too. Guiltily, she wondered how Leo was doing, stuck in the cabin waiting for her. She looked carefully at Irwin one last time, then gathered herself up and started back to her cabin.

"It's not like he's going anywhere in the next couple of hours," she said outloud as she made her way out of the lounge. She ducked into the Cafe and ordered a meal to be sent to her room. Then she hurried below decks to warn Leo.

He was watching the slow change of the scenery as avidly as he'd watched the departure from England. Renet realized, with a pang, that he'd probably stood at the porthole the entire time she was gone, soaking up the experience as much as he could. "Better find some cover," she warned. "Lunch is on its way!"

Leo was very quiet while they ate. The voices of people passing just outside their door seemed loud, by comparison. Renet shook herself out of her own thoughts when she realized that Leo had stopped eating and was staring at the door, worry written across his features. "What is it?"

"Listen. Those kids-do you hear them?"

Renet could hear the piping voices clearly. "So? They probably have a cabin on this corridor-"

"I know that they do," Leo interrupted her. "I've been-I sat by the door for a long time after you left, just listening to them. They're so little...five, maybe six years old. They've been chasing each other up and down the hall, whenever they get away from the nanny..."

At just that moment, the sound of a small child running down the thickly carpeted hall distracted both of them. Down the corridor, a woman called out shrilly, "Annie, come back here and behave!"

Leo chewed on his lower lip, then looked at Renet squarely. "Renet, isn't there some way you can save them? I can hear them playing-they're just kids, they haven't done anything to anyone..."

She closed her eyes against the desperate entreaty in his face. "I can't," she whispered. "If I could...but nothing I do can save them. I can only make it worse..."

Leo listened silently as she explained the reasons she could do nothing to prevent the collision or the deaths that would follow. When she at last opened her eyes again, he was sitting cross-legged in his chair, staring down at his hands. She watched him absorb the terrible lesson, keeping her own silence while he thought.

Finally he stirred. But instead of looking at her, his gaze went to the window. "It's getting late," he said at last. "Better go look after Howard, and make sure he doesn't get away at Cherbourg."

~o~

The _Titanic_ dropped anchor outside the harbour at Cherbourg. Renet was relieved-at least there was only one way off the ship, from this distance! She watched the tenders steam out from Cherbourg - _Titanic_ 's mass kept her out of the harbour - and covertly studied the passengers gathered to depart. Apparently only a few of the first- and second-class passengers were leaving. Renet noticed small Tommy among the group, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Howard Irwin did not seem to be among those waiting to be ferried ashore.

Renet wanted to relax, but her all-too-authentic clothing wouldn't permit it. But she did let her attention stray down to the other end of the deck, where another small boy was playing with a colorful top, under the watchful eye of his father. Then she noticed a man with an old-fashioned camera - _no, that's brand-new, in this time_ \- was also watching the cheery scene. Renet realized he had just taken a picture of the boy and his father.

The photographer turned around just then, and noticed her gaze. He smiled, and gathered the bulky camera up, and came over to the bench where she sat. "Would you like to see how it works?"

Renet bit back the first angry rebuke that sprang to her lips when she noticed the small gold cross on his lapel. "No, I think I understand it, Father," she smiled. In fact, it was about to be too dark for him to take any pictures.

"Ah." But instead of leaving, he seated himself beside her. "I am not a priest just yet, but I have enough of an eye to see the look of a troubled heart. Would you care to confide in me? I assure you, I will keep anything you say under deepest secrecy."

She was taken aback by the offer. If he had made a pass at her, she would have been less startled. "I - no, thank you."

"Hmm." He settled back against the wooden slats of the bench. "Of course, you would be reluctant to confide in a stranger. My name is Francis Browne." He made a sort of bow to her, while still seated. "I suspect that you are troubled, because you intend to see this voyage through to its end, and you afraid that there are some people, dear to you, whom you will never see again."

Renet felt herself pale at his words. How could he know-? And then she recalled the time and place. _He thinks I'm emigrating to the New World! The relief almost made her dizzy._

At the same time, she was aware of a strange disappointment. It would have been nice, she reflected briefly, to have someone she could discuss her deep unease with. Someone she could turn to, as Leo had turned to her, for reassurance that the course she had chosen was really the only course to take.

On the heels of that, came the realization that she was under no obligation to discuss anything with this stranger, priest or not. "I'm terribly sorry," she smiled and stood up. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the departing passengers file away, ready to be carried to the French town. Howard Irwin did not join them at the last moment. "I really don't feel comfortable talking about it. Good day, sir."

"Good day to you, young miss," he called, as she turned and made her way back into the ship. "I am here, if you need someone to talk to."

Leo watched Cherbourg recede out of his view. The last time _Titanic_ would ever see land...it made him shiver. He closed the porthole, and dropped onto the bed with a sigh. _I'm so bored...I can't even help Renet search._

He toyed with the idea of putting his disguise back on and exploring, but finally decided against it. The coat and scarf hid him well in the press of the crowd, but would only call attention to him if he wandered around the elegant ship.

Time seemed to slow. Outside the porthole, stars began to fill the sky.

Leo dragged himself off the bed and sat down to try to meditate. He was more alone, trapped in the cabin, than he had been the entire time he spent in the Null Void. It gave him too much time to think. And brood.

He missed his family. Even though he knew he would get them back, it was hard-he'd never in his life been so alone. Always, there was someone nearby-if not Splinter, then one of his brothers...

 _Stop it,_ he told himself firmly. _No sense in getting upset over what you're about to fix._

But his mind kept returning to it. For the first time in days, he remembered what they had looked like, all of them broken and dead in the tunnels.

"Stop it!" he told himself out loud. The stars blurred as he fought to control himself. His heart beat too fast, at the memory of the loss...

He jumped up and flung the porthole open again. The cold air was welcome, and took some of the heat out of his face. He gulped, and forced himself to look at the stars... _only at the stars...not at them, Leo, not at their bodies, that's not gonna happen now...you're gonna get them back. You'll get them back, and you'll have a great story to tell them...they won't believe you, at first, except for Splinter...Mikey'll say you're trying to top his stories, but it'll be true...you can really say..._

"I was there, on the _Titanic_ , Mikey," he whispered, tasting the words, imagining the reactions. "I was really there. And it was the greatest thing that's ever happened to me, so far..."

He had gotten himself more under control, and was even beginning to calm, when Renet burst in.

"I talked to him!" she said, before she even got the door completely closed. "Howard - he actually stopped me, on the promenade! He heard I was looking for him, and wanted to meet me...I guess he doesn't think of me as a threat, 'cause he asked me to join him for dinner - I have to change-" and she dove into the wardrobe.

Leo watched, as various ruffled and beribboned things were tossed out. "He - he's taking you to dinner? Like...a date?"

"Not like a date," Renet popped out of the wardrobe long enough to frown at him. "He just invited me to join him and his friends at their table...hope this dress is good enough..." She held a length of blue satin against her shoulder, made up her mind, and swept into the bathroom with it.

"But it doesn't make sense," Leo called to her. "Why would he invite you to dinner, if he thinks you're after him?"

"He doesn't think that!" Renet sounded exasperated, through the closed door. "Remember the time we're in - young ladies aren't a threat, we can't be involved in anything threatening, we're just decorative! Or so the men of this time think," she swept out of the bathroom again, and spun to present her back to Leo. "Do those last buttons up, will you?"

He fumbled the last buttons closed, while his mind worked frantically to find a hole in her thinking. "I just...it doesn't feel right," he said at last.

"I know." She turned to look at him again, and her expression was serious. "I agree. But if I can get him to trust me, maybe I can get close to the Sceptre. I have to make sure that Sceptre goes down with the ship."

Something still wasn't right. Leo hated that nagging feeling of something important being overlooked. "All right," he said reluctantly. "But I don't like it."

She grinned at him, a hint of impishness in her face. "I'll be home by midnight, Daddy. Don't wait up!" She swooped and kissed him lightly on the cheek, then was gone in a rustle of expensive fabric.

~o~

Dinner on the _Titanic_ was a tedious thing, Renet decided after the third course. _All these people are trying to be so refined, they can't possibly be tasting the food!_ Howard Irwin was gracious, but reserved, as were all of the others at their table. Renet no longer remembered their names - she told herself it was so she wouldn't compare them to the lists of survivors, later - and she didn't know the restaurants in Paris, London, and Nice that they were complaining about. She was afraid to try to redirect the conversation.

Over sherbet, she noticed Howard was watching her openly. "Tell me, Miss Renet," he said in a low voice, when he noticed her glance, "why, exactly, did you want to meet with me?"

 _What do I say?_ She swallowed, and blurted the first thing that came to mind. "Antiques. My father told me you were something of an expert. In antiques."

"Ah, I see," he leaned back and smiled at her. Renet noticed that it didn't reach his eyes. "And your father is-?"

"You...wouldn't know him."

"Yet he knows me...by name, at least." He leaned forward again, and took her hand. "Tell me, young miss...I am very good at guessing people's games...you are-let me think-raised in America, by the sound of your voice. You have been on a trip to see your father, and now...now you are going home? I think I'm right...Perhaps I have done some work for your father? Or perhaps that is the cover story, and you were sent by your...father...to reward me for a job well-done?"

She stiffened, as he kissed her hand. _Gah, he really is a slime, under all that polish!_ "You are very certain of that, Sir? What if you are wrong?"

"Rarely," he smiled at her again, and this time it reached his eyes. "I think I know what you really want from me -"

The other gentlemen at the table stood up at just that moment. "Coming for cigars and brandy, Irwin?" one of them asked genially.

"Yes, of course," and Howard Irwin stood up as well. "Miss Renet, we will have to continue this...fascinating discussion...another time."

When she got back to the cabin, Leo was more than half-asleep where he sat. But he gallantly refused to take the bed.

"I'm a warrior," he told her, voice fuzzed with exhaustion. "Don't need any soft mattresses..."

She wanted to hug him, for being so true to what she remembered of him, for showing her this seed of something that would be so much a part of the Leo she knew in her teen years. At the same time, she wanted to grab his shoulders and shake him, for being so obstinate.

"Leo," she said again, patiently, "you're still recovering. You were terribly injured, and almost died. You still need rest, and you DON'T need it on a hard floor!"

" 's okay," he pulled the comforter off the bed and sank to the floor with it before she could stop him. "I'll sleep better, here...not used t' mattresses anyway..." and he was asleep.

She tucked a pillow under his head to make herself feel better. Warrior or not, he was still not quite thirteen years old. And he needed his sleep.

It was hard for her to sleep. What was that odd conversation about, with Irwin? Did he think he was being seductive? Or was there some undercurrent that she wasn't quite picking up on? Now that she was sure he wasn't going to leave the ship, shouldn't that have restored the Time Line? But if it had, Leo would be gone; the paradox thatbrought him to her would have ended.

She turned on her side. Even at night, she could see the some of the fine details of the room. The dark furniture was beautiful...and in a few days, it would be rotting in the darkness...she shuddered.

Once she started thinking about it, she couldn't stop. The _Titanic_ would lie in darkness for most of a century, undiscovered. Even when she was found, the crews that explored the sad wreck would have to have special gear, since nothing from the surface could survive at that depth; the pressure was crushing-

The realization made her sit up and gasp aloud. "The Sceptre _can't_ go down into that!"

Leo struggled awake, slowed by his own healing. "Huh? Wha-Renet?"

"It's-it's okay, Leo; go back to sleep. Just...a bad dream. Go back to sleep." There was nothing he or she could do about it at that hour, anyway. She laid back down, resigned to a sleepless night, and thought about the Sceptre falling down into that darkness.

The pressure would either crush the crystal in the Sceptre, and start the very catastrophe she was trying to prevent even earlier, or the crews that explored the _Titanic_ 's debris field might find the Sceptre anyway, which just made that same crisis likely to happen much later.

"I have to get the Sceptre away from him," she whispered. "And I have to do it before Sunday night."

~o~

Leo was awake and moving before he realized it. He stumbled away from the nest he'd made and grabbed up his katanas in pure reflex. Danger - but what kind? He squinted at the bright morning sunlight. Something was horribly wrong - a rattling sound at the door, and full memory returned.

"The maid!" he dove into the trunk and slid the lid into place a bare second before the door swung open.

Through the air holes, Leo watched as the maid straightened up the room, changed the sheets, frowned over the twisted comforter on the floor, and shook out his clothing, which he had left carelessly across the foot of the bed. He couldn't quite fathom the wide-eyed, shocked look she gave the assorted garments, nor the muttered phrase, "...no better than she ought to be..."

By the time the maid was finished, the adrenaline rush had long since worn away to boredom. Leo wondered where Renet was, and how she had managed to slip out without waking him. It bothered him, to realize he'd slept so deeply. It was a point of pride for him to sleep lightly when the situation called for it.

He came out of the trunk cautiously, and stepped soundlessly to the door. The maid seemed to have moved away down the hall, but what if she came back-? At just that moment he heard a man's voice, coming out of the room just across the hall, and rushed back into his hiding place. The steward entered, inspected the cleaning job, eyed the man's - or so it seemed - clothing spread across the bed, and refilled the water tank in the bathroom with hot water.

Leo sighed, and prepared to spend the morning in his cramped hiding place. He wondered again where Renet was. "At least she coulda left me some breakfast," he grumbled.

Renet was not having a good morning, either. She had slipped out of her cabin at sunrise, after a sleepless night, and managed to get some coffee from the first steward she saw. She sat at a window and watched the sky turn to blue, while she toyed with a sweet roll. Briefly, she wondered if she ought to get something for Leo, then decided against it. _I'll be back in just a little while; he won't even know I'm gone._

The breakfast crowd was just trickling in as Renet finished her second cup of coffee. She stayed where she was, hoping to catch Howard Irwin again at breakfast. Her mouth crimped in distaste, but she was relieved to know he was definitely still on board. Even his bizarre conversation was not a high price to pay, if she could just get her hands on the alternate Sceptre before Sunday night.

Howard didn't appear for breakfast in the first-class dining room. Renet strolled down the length of the first- and second-class promenades, but didn't see him. She paused at the aft rail on the promenade to look at the long, serpentine wake _Titanic_ was leaving.

Strolling the promenade seemed to be the primary diversion for the other passengers, as well. She listened as one young man - who evidently thought very highly of himself, to judge from his affected speech and condescending tone - explained to the pretty girl on his arm that the wake's wide S-curves were caused by _Titanic_ 's crew, checking and adjusting the compasses.

 _I don't think I can listen to this kind of drivel for the next three days,_ Renet thought as she exchanged a smile and a nod with the couple, and resumed her own stroll.

The dark smudge of land on the starboard side gave her a nasty shock.

She stared at the smudge for a moment, afraid to believe what she was seeing. _That can't be - we aren't stopping anywhere else! Titanic_ picked up her last passengers at Cherbourg- But the land was unmistakably growing closer.

She had her fears confirmed when the liner stopped to pick up the pilot for the Queenstown Harbour. Her mind was racing, trying to encompass this horrible oversight. How could the libraries in the Null Void have been so incomplete as to miss this fact? Yet she had no memory of ever reading about the stop at Queenstown.

Renet tried to remain calm. _Maybe they just want to pick up some additional provisions. Yeah, that's probably it - the way the crowd ate last night, no way can there be enough on the ship already-!_ She gave in to childish superstion, and crossed her fingers. _Please, please, please don't let anyone plan to leave this ship now-!_

In the general press and confusion of people, Renet had a hard time getting to a place where she could watch the action. But she spotted a familiar figure right away. "Father Browne!"

The priest-photographer turned at her call. "Ah, yes, young miss. I'm sorry we didn't have time for our talk - as you see, I'm due to leave now."

Leaving. He was leaving, so that might mean - "Do you know who else will be leaving with you?" She tried to keep her voice light.

"Well, yes," he looked discomfited at her sudden interest. "Mrs. Odell, her son and daughter -" he gestured at a small family "- as well as the May brothers and myself, are all due to board a train at Queenstown this afternoon. After this-"

"No one else? There isn't anyone else travelling with you?"

He was definitely becoming uncomfortable at her direct questions. "Err - no, not that I'm aware of. Though of course, I cannot know the itinerary of all the passengers on board-"

They were interrupted then by the call to board the tender that would ferry them to Queenstown. Renet was mildly relieved to see them go - at least their deaths would not haunt her - and watched as the crew of the tender made ready to leave.

"Wait!"

Even as she turned, Renet knew she was too late.

Howard Irwin brushed past her before she realized he was there, and was halfway down the gangplank that connected the two ships. "I'm sorry to be late - my name is Nichols; I'm supposed to be on the ship," he reassured the crewman who came to meet him.

The crewman looked over his papers, then took his bag. "Right this way, sir."

But Irwin turned to look up at Renet. He smiled maliciously. "Good day to you, Miss Renet. Be sure to tell your ...father..."

Renet lost the rest of his comment. Howard Irwin dropped out of her thoughts and vision completely. All her attention was focused on the bag that the crewman was carrying away. A bag that undoubtedly held the other Sceptre. A bag that was moving further away by the second, as the crews of both ships pressed between her and Irwin, preparing to disconnect the two vessels.

She spun on her heel, vaguely aware that Irwin was still speaking, and equally aware of the puzzled, deflated look that came over his face as he realized she wasn't listening. But she had no time or desire to puzzle out his twisted commentary.

 _We have to get out of here,_ she thought as she rushed down the corridors to her room. _We've lost it in this time - we'll get it in the next._

Leo couldn't see Queenstown from his window, but he could tell the ship had stopped. "Something's up," he said out loud. He felt for the hilts of his katanas, even though he didn't expect to be able to use them.

Nothing happened. He began to worry about Renet.

Running footsteps in the hall sent him diving for cover again. But this time it was Renet. "He got away," she reported. She slammed the door behind her. "He got off, using another name - WHY didn't we know the ship stopped at Queenstown?!"

"People got off here?" Leo stepped out of the trunk and perched on its domed lid. "I didn't read that - "

"The library doesn't have all that much on the _Titanic_ ," Renet informed him. "Sim just assumed he had all the info we'd need." She blew a stray lock of hair out of her eyes, and looked at Leo gravely. "Sim was wrong. It wasn't that Howard Irwin didn't get on the _Titanic_. He just didn't stay on the _Titanic_. But even if he'd stayed the Sceptre would have gone down, and I would have had to stop that."

"What do you - ?"

Renet explained her reasoning to him in clipped tones as she struggled out of the dress she wore and into yet another outfit. Leo examined the logic of it, and was relieved to feel none of the unease he had felt earlier. "That's what was wrong the whole time," he marvelled. "We both knew something wasn't quite right, but just couldn't identify it..."

"Yeah." Renet tossed the discarded dress into the trunk. "Well, what do you think?" She spun slowly, showing off the new dress she wore. It was shorter, and looked, to Leo's inexperienced eyes, a lot more comfortable.

"So - we're just quitting, here?"

"There's nothing else we can do," she shrugged. "We're too late to get off at Queenstown ourselves. Even if we could get off, by the time we got to shore, he'd be miles away. So we try again in the next time. And I must point out," she put her hands on her hips and gave him a hard look, "you are NOT properly dressed!"

He groaned as Renet advanced on him with yet another costume.

~o~


	6. Chapter 3B

**Paradox - Chapter Three B**

They left the cover of the dense Westchester woods, and now had a clearer view of the main house, which, though it was surrounded by a high, brick wall, from their vantage point on the hill, showed the interior quite clearly, even in the half-light of dusk. They had come up from the small meadow where they had entered this time, and place, following a road that consisted of a pair of tire tracks. They crouched in the grass while Renet carefully tucked the cube into a rucksack, and hid it among the roots of a prominent oak, whose pale, ancient trunk stood out like a beacon against the edge of the woods.

Then they diverted their attention to the house, which was more of mansion proportions. Climbing a sturdy tree closest to the wall, they settled in it to study the terrain. The central building was three stories high, made of large, grey blocks of rough-hewn granite, with two single story wings of brick and dark wood, that had floor to ceiling, many paned windows. It had an old world look to it, as though it had been taken from...

"Awesome," Leo whispered in awe. "It reminds me of Magnum PI somehow."

"Magnum? Isn't that some kind of... firearm?"

Leo shifted slightly in the tree. "Uh, yeah, it is, actually. It's the name of a tv show... you know, with Tom Selleck?... It's about Thomas Magnum, a private investigator who stays at this awesome estate in Hawaii, that belongs to some mysterious guy named Robin. And Magnum drives a red Ferrari... and the caretaker is this English guy named Higgins- and there's Zeus and Apollo - "

"Zeus and Apollo? What, Greek gods?"

"Course not, they're guard dogs - " Leo noticed her blank look. "Ah, never mind. I guess you don't watch TV, do you?"

Renet smirked. "Would you believe me if I said I had NO TIME?" She sighed. "Not that I haven't watched TV at ALL, I saw a few videos, Like Clueless, Bill and Ted, Encino Man...?" She stopped at his blank look. "Oops, never mind."

They turned their attention back to the house.

"Okay, we need a game plan, here," Renet said after a pause.

"Well," Leo frowned as he thought a moment. His brothers were always looking to him for plans. Although this was a lot different from sneaking around Central Park at night.

"What year is this again?"

"1953."

"Okay. Simpler technology. Security systems can't be too difficult to out-maneuver. What would be obvious is this fence. Locked doors. A night watchman? Guard dogs?"

"What, named Zeus and Apollo?" Renet snorted softly. "Yeah, that should be real entertaining."

"Wouldn't be, if they got a hold of you..." Leo slowly moved farther out on his branch, straining for a better view. "I'm gonna need to circle this whole place, get a better idea of the layout. Stay here ok? I'll be back in about half an hour."

"And if you don't come back, I shall be innocent of any knowledge of your existence."

 _"Hmphf."_ Leo then grinned. "This tree will self destruct in thirty seconds." And then he dropped quickly below.

 _This was perfect!_ A chance to really use what Splinter had been teaching them. He'd felt so worthless on their first attempt at the Sceptre. But what else was could he have done? Sneak into the guy's room, knock him out and tie him up in his cabin with a "do not disturb until underwater"?

The man had escaped a horrible tragedy. A fate Leo wished on no one, even if that meant the timeline was still damaged and the City was still slated for destruction in 1983. He wanted his family back, but not at the cost of another's life. He hoped that wouldn't have to happen again... just...get the Sceptre and get out of here, plain and simple.

As he moved along the wall, he looked for things that would either aid or deter them, positions of trees and shrubbery, possible avenues of escape such as trellises to climb... the light had long faded, and still, no signs of life. Was there no one home? If not, then this would be a cinch. He then spotted the side door, in the shadows of two juniper bushes that flanked the entryway. Looked like a good place to start...

After making a complete circuit of the fence, he wound up back by Renet's tree.

 _"Psst!"_

 _"Shhh,"_ was the answering hiss from the branches of the tree.

Leo climbed up beside Renet, who pointed toward the yard. "Dogs," she whispered.

"You're kidding."

 _"I wish!_ You must have missed them, because as you were going around one side of the wall, they came around from the other side of the house. Listen."

Leo sat very still to sort out the various small night noises, and sure enough, there was the clink of dog tags against collars, and the intermittent patter of dog toenails clicking as they trotted across the flagstone walkways. He soon made out the forms of two very large, shorthaired dogs, as they darted about the garden, noses to the ground, following endlessly meandering scent trails in the grass.

Leo sat back and looked at Renet. All he could see was her silhouette in the dark, but he could imagine the expression on her face.

"I _hate_ dogs," she muttered.

"You don't have to do this," Leo whispered back, careful to keep the sound level below that of the leaves rustling in the breeze.

"Really? So then _you_ will distract the dogs while I pick the lock?"

" _Geez,_ Renet..." Leo stared at the horizon a moment, and saw the moon was rising. "Well... if we are going to do this at all, we'd better get to it now."

He then told her what she was to do.

"Okay... Here goes nothin' ." Renet said as she hopped out of the tree. She ran along the wall in the opposite direction that Leo had come.

The sudden lurch and snarl of the two dogs told Leo they had now noticed Renet's presence, and he immediately leaped out of the tree onto the grass inside the garden, as the animals disappeared around the edge of the house.

Not wanting to waste any time, he darted across the open lawn, to the safety of the shrubbery. He slid silently along the house wall, behind the bushes, until he reached the side door. After a quick glance around, he pulled out the tool he'd improvised for the job. This shouldn't be too hard... bigger, simpler, locking mechanisms... _gadz_ , he was starting to think like Don. Never mind... _concentrate, Leo, and you will be with them again. You will...be with them... again..._

The sudden fury of barking echoed from the far corner of the house. _Damn it, Renet, I'm not done yet!_

He carefully inserted the tool, and began working it around to get the tumblers turning.

The barking was rapidly approaching... Leo made a sibilant sound of frustration, and he worked faster.

" _Leo!"_ Renet's voice hissed from nearby. "Get that door open yet? We're about to become chew toys, here!"

"I'm on it." _Okay, Leo... concentrate..._

The barking came nearer, and Leo glanced up and saw in horror the dogs were nearly on Renet, who only had the flimsy branches of a row of bushes between her and their snapping jaws, her back against the house wall a few yards from him.

 _"LEO!"_

 _"I'm ON it!"_ The lock, Leo, don't look at the dogs. He breathed out slowly to keep down the urge to drop everything and run. He wasn't too crazy about dogs, either... yet his hands remained steady.

 _"LEEEEOOO!"_

Don't look at the dogs, look at the lock. Suddenly it clicked, and with a rush of relief, Leo turned the handle _. Open!_

He leaped at the nearest dog, slapping it hard on the flank to distract it enough for Renet to avoid being bitten. It now turned on its new adversary, a rumbling growl starting up from the depths of its massive chest. _"Get inside, Renet, I'll hold them off. Go!"_

Renet jumped for the door, and Leo now had both dogs coming at him. He dodged, and punched the first one in the shoulder hard enough to knock it over. A low, sweeping hook kick to the other's head sent that one spinning with a startled yelp. As they scrambled to their feet for a new attack, Leo sprinted for the door, and managed to close it in their faces. The door panels shook with their angry collisions. Renet and Leo exchanged glances as they listened to the thunderous barks.

" _Arrghh_ , so much for the quiet approach... who needs high-tech when you have THOSE monsters?" Renet said as Leo locked the door from the inside. She paused in the dim glow of the night light, to inspect the long red lines on her arms.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Just from those rose bushes. Got carved up a bit, but I think they saved me from a much _worse_ fate, _brrr._ " She looked around the entryway. "Well, if anyone _is_ home, we'd know about it by now, I think."

"Maybe... then again, anyone who is inside, could be waiting us out. I'll go first." Leo unsheathed a sword, and put his other hand on the doorknob. At first he could only hear the thrumming of his own pulse, his heart still pounding from the surge of adrenaline, as he slowly turned the knob, and the door swung inward.

The musty scent of the interior told Leo the place had been closed up for some time. Weeks, even months. He moved silently down the long dark hall, testing doors carefully as he passed, but all were locked. The hall opened up to a vast foyer, crowned by an enormous chandelier, which hung overhead, from a chain in the ceiling, three stories above. He paused, waving Renet to stand still, as he listened and scanned the area for any signs of life. Nothing stirred, and Leo slowly moved toward the center of the space, peering up the banister at the opening to the hall upstairs. He swivelled to look through the open double doors that led to the main living room, seeing only the ghostly forms of furniture, covered in white sheets. He chewed thoughtfully on his lower lip as he sheathed his sword. Everything was coated with a fine layer of dust, and it was obvious nothing had disturbed it.

"Coast is clear," he said quietly to Renet, who emerged from the shadow of the rear hallway. "You sure you have the right address?"

"Yes, of course," Renet pulled a thick, battered envelope from her coat pocket, and pulled out a folded sheaf of papers. "This _is_ the residence of a certain Mr. Robert Henry Goldmann III, Crow Hill Road, Bedford, New York, who is the said current owner of the said Sceptre..."

"Yeah, well, wherever he is, it's entirely possible he's gone on some long leave of absence, and took his valuables with him, including said Sceptre."

"Maybe not. It's entirely possible he has The Affliction, and is in some hospital. So I think we should still look around."

"Then we'd better get going, we don't have much _time_." He realized the double meaning in that, but Renet didn't seem to notice. "Uh, I'll take the upstairs, you take the downstairs. Okay?"

"Yep." Renet tucked the envelope back in her pocket, and made her way to the main room.

Leo took the stairs three at a time, paused at the top, then padded softly along the thick runner carpet of the second floor.

 _If I had a Sceptre, where would I keep it?_ Sceptre.. Sceptre... Sands of Time... hmm, that sounded like poetry. _Maybe someday I'll write a poem about all this._ The first level of rooms showed up nothing but dust. Leo suppressed a series of sneezes as climbed to the third floor. Most of the doors were locked. Likely just more bedrooms. One was open, a small library or study, and then a storage closet... and... _what was this_ , a door a bit different from the other ones. The door hinges made a grating sound as it opened, unlike the well-oiled one leading to the study. Just inside was a steep, narrow staircase leading to what was obviously the attic. _Hmmm. A likely place to store old relics..._

The wooden steps creaked as Leo ascended, and he felt a small chain brush against the top of his head. Feeling for it, and looking up, he saw it was attached to a bulb. He pulled on it, and now that the place was illuminated, saw what seemed like endless rows of crates, trunks, stacks of boxes and books, and more shrouded furniture.

He groaned softly in frustration. _This is gonna take forever, this place is way too big..._ then he started on the right side of the room, picking up things and looking in boxes.

A commotion on the floor below him halted his search. Someone was climbing the steps to the attic, and the feet sounded too heavy to be Renet's. Leo ducked under the nearest shroud, and saw the figure of a man appear in the attic's entrance. Leo swallowed and strained to hear for Renet, but there was only silence, broken by the man's heavy breathing from the exertion of his climb. He carried a flashlight, and switched it on to augment the dimmer light of the single bulb. The beam pointed at the dusty wooden floor, which Leo realized belatedly, showed his footprints quite clearly. He silently cursed his carelessness, as the flashlight swung suspiciously around the recesses of the attic.

~o~

Renet had entered the den, and was busily opening drawers and rifling the contents when she heard the sound of the dogs barking furiously, then only one, then silence. She stood by the window, trying to peek out the curtains without disturbing them. Great timing, she thought. Not long after, she heard a scratching at the window, and moved back behind the desk. _Who the hell is that, the night watchman?_ Maybe he was just testing the windows...

After some rattling and scraping, the window jerked open, and there was a pause before a dark shape hoisted itself, grunting, over the ledge. A man in dark clothing and a black knit cap lowered himself, somewhat clumsily, into the room, pulling a partially empty duffle bag along with him. He stopped a moment to look around, and then switched on a powerful flashlight. Renet cringed from the bright circle of light, but the man went purposefully out of the den, and into the foyer.

 _Great,_ she thought. _A burglar. Just what we need._ She stood up and tiptoed to the door, and slowly peered around the edge of it, and saw the man climbing the main staircase. _Heh... should be real interesting when he meets up with Leo_... she waited, hardly daring to breathe, but no sounds of struggle came from upstairs. Either Leo has done his job exceptionally well, or, alerted by the man's noisy ascent, is in hiding, too... _blast it all, they have this clown to deal with now, and no clue of where the Sceptre is!_

Unless... she frowned as she thought a moment. That burglar seemed very sure of where he was going, did he know this house that well, and why didn't the dogs attack him? Did they know him, or did he do something to stop them? He didn't seem like a professional... maybe it was an inside job. It seemed like he knew... exactly what he was after...

Her thoughts were interrupted by the flash of headlights coming up the driveway.

Oh, no, not more people... she caught a glimpse of not one vehicle, but what looked to be several, that pulled up end to end, along the circular drive in front of the house. Car doors slammed, and she heard the crackle of a two way radio. Police? If so, they were in deep doo-doo... She looked frantically up the stairs. They had to get out of here! _Leo, where are you?_

She waited as long as she could, and then ran for the corridor that led to the back of the house. _We can't both be in here, Leo must be surely alerted to all this company, and he'd likely be wondering if I got out... better make it while I still can, dogs or no dogs._ She opened the door, and ran out across the grass, expecting the dogs to be waiting for her, but they were nowhere to be seen. She scaled the wall, her toes scrabbling for holds in the rough brick and ignored the pain of barked shins. Reaching the top, Renet jumped down to the relative safety of the other side.

~o~

Leo crouched at the ready, in case the man stumbled on his hiding place, but the man had cut off his short search and now seemed engrossed in taking boxes off a large, wooden trunk in the corner of the room to the left of the door, and rattling the padlock that kept the lid secured. There was a sharp click, and then the chorus of creaking hinges.

Leo cautiously stood on a stack of books to see what the man was up to, when he noticed that walls near to the trunk reflected a familiar pink glow.

"Ahh," the man murmured with obvious delight. "There you are, my darling... I have you at last."

 _The Sceptre!_ Leo nearly lost his balance at the sight of it, the Artefact loosely wrapped in a blanket, cradled like a child in the man's arms.

Leo's mind raced. He could easily jump him and take it from him... and their journey would be at an end. Now, how to do this with as little -

The sound of more footsteps approaching the attic door below caused him to duck down behind the drape again, and he heard the man curse under his breath and then all the lights went out. A pair of boots clumped slowly up the stairs, paused, and Leo heard a rapid series of mechanical clicks. Then came the distinct thump of something heavy falling on a body, and a grunt, then the thud of someone collapsing onto the floor. There was what sounded like a struggle, a string of whispered oaths, and then steps quickly descending the stairs. After a short silence, Leo emerged from his hiding place. He nearly fell over the body of a man sprawled halfway in the entrance, with some kind of metal detector lying nearby. After finding a pulse, Leo realized this was not the same guy who had come up first, and _\- dammit - the Sceptre was gone!_

And there were other people moving around, below...voices approached.

"Hey, where's Guy?" The nearer voice asked.

"Saw him head in there," a more distant voice replied.

" _Guy?"_ A head emerged in the open doorway, and Leo was suddenly blinded by the direct beam of a flashlight. _"What the - "_

Too late to go anywhere but back up into the attic.

Shouts echoed up the narrow space, and Leo bounded back over the unconscious man, and dove back under the piano.

He watched as more flashlights appeared, more shapes, and more voices.

"Did you _see_ that?"

"What was it?"

"Dunno, but it was green and kinda shiny, and had these _huuuge_ eyes."

"Oh, _swell_. _Please_ , not more of your little men from Mars! Did ya see what spaceship he came out of?"

 _"Shaddup, both of you."_

"What - ho! Guy? _Guy!_ You okay, buddy? _Talk to me_!"

"Where's his radiation suit?"

 _Too many of them... no escape route, can't make it past them... better attempt to negotiate. Use wits instead of resorting to force..._ Leo breathed deeply to settle himself, then slowly stood up.

 _"Whoa, there it is!"_ someone said excitedly.

 _What do I do,_ Leo thought frantically _. Should I play this up and pretend I'm Spock from the planet Vulcan, or be cool and just go along with what they want, for the moment? He opted for the latter._ No sense in agitating them further, and hopefully he could drop their guard enough...

"Don't shoot, I come in peace," Leo said, trying to make his voice sound deeper than it was, but only succeeded in cracking it. What looked to be a dozen flashlight beams were now trained directly at him.

After a short silence of surprise, one of the men spoke up. "All right, come on out of there, nice and slow, and keep your uhh, hands where I can see 'em."

"Okay, _okay,_ just don't get excited," Leo said, as calmly as he could, although he was sure they could see his heart hammering nearly through his plastron. He made his way carefully into the open, squinting at the bright light. He had no clear view of the man, and had no idea if he was armed, or not.

"What did you attack Guy for?" demanded the first man.

"I didn't," Leo protested. "There was this burglar or somebody, who knocked him down, and then took off. Didn't you see him?"

"I didn't see anybody," he replied in a tone that told Leo he clearly didn't believe him.

"Then he must have run out the door when you all weren't looking. Either that, or he's still hiding somewhere in the house."

As Leo spoke, the first man, who acted like the leader, gave orders for the others to go back downstairs, before backing down the stairwell, keeping Leo's face in the beam of his flashlight.

"Look, I don't want any trouble. I, uh, got lost, and I just want to - um, phone home?" Leo went on, as the man retreated.

The man didn't reply, but continued to back down the stairs.

Leo slowly followed him, trying to look as harmless as possible. Down in the illuminated hallway, Leo could see there were a lot more men, all wearing what looked like protective jumpsuits, their faces hidden behind helmets, goggles and facemasks.

"Wow. What _is_ this, a Devo convention?" Leo said and laughed a little.

No one responded. He could see now they were pointing something at him, but he wasn't sure what they were. They _looked_ like guns...

They started to close in on him, and he backed up to the nearest door. _Might be a good idea... if I keep their guard down, by acting like a kid. Hell, I am a kid..._ "Uhm, listen, I don't - you won't shoot me with those, will you?"

"As long as you cooperate," the first man said, now pointing what was very obviously a gun. "Go on in there, and sit down. And don't try anything, you understand?"

Leo looked through the doorway, into what looked like a small office. "Where do you want me to - ?"

"In the chair, sit!"

Okay, okay, I'm not a _dog_ , Geez... Leo said petulantly to himself, as he sank carefully into the leather chair between the desk and a window, all the while keeping an eye on his would-be captor.

"What are those you have on?" The man gestured at Leo's sword hilts.

"What, these?" Leo reached back to touch one.

"Watch it, Mark," someone said.

"Take them out, nice and slow, and put them down there," Mark said tensely, his knuckles whitening on the handle of his revolver.

 _Hmm, this guy is nervous... maybe I'd better watch it, myself_. _It wouldn't do if I got shot._ Leo carefully unsheathed the swords, laying them on the floor, all the while giving him what he hoped was a disarming smile.

"Where are you from?"

"Huh?" Leo was taken off guard a moment by the suddenness of the question. "From New Y- uh, the uhm, Gala... Galapagos."

"Galapagos? The islands?"

"Yeah..."

The other men looked at each other.

"What ARE you?"

"What do you think? I'm a big tortoise. You know, T.U.R.T.L.E.?"

"He's a wise guy," someone said from the back.

"Yeah, I'm wise, just was wondering if _you_ were."

"Yeah, I get the message, " Mark muttered. "Maybe you want to tell me how you got in here?"

"With all due respect, _sir,_ it isn't any of your business," Leo replied calmly.

"It isn't, huh? Then maybe I oughta have you run in for trespassing, or worse!"

"What, run in for being something you don't understand?" Leo retorted. "Being different? Is that a crime?"

The man paused a moment, his gun wavering a little in uncertainty. At length he gestured behind him.

"Dane, bring that over will you? I want this guy scanned."

"Scanned?" Leo drew his knees up.

Several suited figures slowly approached, and held out long handled, clicking instruments. _Geiger counters. Like I'm radioactive..._

In spite of his self assurance, Leo felt his heart skip a beat, as they converged on him. He held himself in, closing his eyes and letting the instruments move over him, just inches away.

"He's clean, sir," said a voice, after several tense minutes.

Leo opened his eyes. He noticed many of the men had now removed their head gear. _They were looking for the Sceptre...that's why the suits and Geiger counters...why does everyone have to turn up at the exact same time for this thing?!_

"Hmm," Mark scratched the side of his nose a moment. "What could those high readings have been, then?"

 _It was the stupid Sceptre, you morons... and you let the thief get away_ , Leo wanted to yell. _Stupid Sceptre... maybe he shouldn't say things like that... maybe it could hear him..._

Someone was running an instrument over his swords. Then Mark went over and picked one of them up, turning it over in his hands.

"Hey, watch it, that's sharp," Leo said, pointing at him warningly.

"What's it used for?"

"That's not any of your - "

"Hey," Dane said suddenly. "I know what those are, they're some kinda Jap swords."

"Jap swords, huh? Thought you said you were from the Galapagos. What are you, some kinda Jap?"

The others laughed at his remark.

"What do you think, Dane? You see any Japs that looked like this fella, when you were over there?"

"Just some dead ones," Dane replied. "They looked kinda funny, but not quite like him."

More laughter continued.

"Hey, Mark, maybe that's what happened to some of those Japs when that A bomb hit 'em, huh? Turned 'em into walking, talking turtles."

Now Mark was laughing.

Leo sat up straighter, indignant. "You think that was funny?"

"Won the war, didn't it? Though I guess it wouldn't be so funny to the Japs, now, would it?"

"Better to die than lose face." Leo said. _Idiots!_ " And I hardly think that solution was honorable."

"Yeah, he TALKS like a Jap... let me tell you something." Dane walked closer to Leo, his mouth twisted in a mirthless grin. "What those Japs did to us wasn't so 'honorable', either. They're all a buncha crackerjacks, if you ask me."

"Easy, Dane. War's over, huh?" Mark nudged him, and held out a package of Lucky Strikes. "Here, have a smoke."

"Oh great, first insults, now cigarettes," Leo grumbled, as he watched them share a match. This is getting really, really tedious, he thought, as several others followed suit. He watched them as they looked him over, and took drags on their cigarettes. The smoke wafted over him, and he cleared his throat experimentally. He took a breath, which brought him a lungful of exhaled smoke, and he coughed this time, in earnest. "Can't breathe, it's killing me," he managed to say.

Mark frowned.

"Can't I open a window?" Leo wheezed.

"Yeah, go ahead," Mark said in disgust. "But I've got my eye on you."

"Yeah, I know," Leo said, undoing the latch. He pulled the window open several inches, and watched the smoke trail out.

"That's wide enough," Mark said. "Don't want you trying to jump."

"Are you kidding?" Leo looked wide eyed at the dimly lit flagstone patio far below. "That's a long way down. Where would I go?"

No one replied, and Mark leaned back against the desk, as he and the others continued to study him. Leo noticed he'd laid the sword on the desk beside him. The other was still lying on the floor, its hilt toward him. He sighed and made a show of staring moodily out the window, while in fact, he was studying the terrain and outlying areas just outside the window itself. A small tree stood a half a dozen feet away, its crown nearly as high as the window. Maybe a couple of feet below that... Leo wondered if it could hold his weight. He had noted the absence of the dogs a while back, with all this intrusion, surely they'd have been barking their heads off... Were they contained, or drugged, maybe even dead? Who were these people? Obviously some agency... and he _had_ to get out of here.

Mark reached for the ashtray on the desk, and turned a little to mash his cigarette stub into it.

 _Now._

Leo sprang for the sword on the floor, snatched up the other on the desk, and before anyone could react, dove toward the window, thrusting his arms together, swords pointing backwards along them like a ship's prow, at the partial opening. With a outward sweeping motion, he managed to push the window sash farther open, barely enough for him to squeeze through. There were shouts, and he expected the crack of the gun and sting of bullets, but none came. Someone grabbed at his ankles, but he managed to kick free.

As he fell, he tucked and rolled, reaching out for the tree, hoping he'd calculated correctly... the slap of a branch across this throat told him he was close enough. He heard the swords clatter as they hit the patio floor, and he snatched at the tree's trunk to steady himself. The young tree swayed wildly, nearly flicking him off in the backswing, but he held on till it settled enough for him to make a more accurate leap down onto the grass. He spun, recovered his katana and ran...

He heard more shouts, as the side door flung open, and several flashlights swept their beams around the garden. He jumped over of the low wall that partially enclosed the patio. Carefully sheathing his swords, Leo crouched in the shadow of that wall, watching the line of figures move across the lawn, their flashlights making dancing, circular patterns in the grass.

Geez, they don't even know where to look, Leo thought with derision. He stood up, leapfrogged the wall easily, and walked across the lawn toward the group of men. He followed them around, matching their pattern of movement, suppressing his amusement at their failure to notice him in their midst.

Then he stumbled over one of the dogs. He gasped as he jumped up, but the dog didn't move. It was warm...not dead then. Good of these people at least to have not killed them.

Suddenly a flashlight shone in his face.

"Hey, HEY! Over here! _I got 'im!"_

Leo rolled quickly away from the light, then doubled back, and lay flat behind a clump of irises.

"Where'd he go? _Was right here_."

"Kinda fast for a turtle, ain't he?"

"Shoot, he's more like a blasted rabbit."

"Hey, what's that, a dog?"

"Aah, you must've been looking at the dog."

"No, no.. I saw that little green fella, he was standing right here. He was looking at the dog."

"What'd he do to that poor pooch?"

Geez, blame ME for everything why dontcha, Leo thought petulantly, as he inched his way along the bed of irises. He jammed his elbow into something hard, and grabbed for it. The broken half of a brick. He looked at where the outer wall was, and tossed the brick back the other direction. It crashed and thudded among the shrubbery.

 _"There he goes!"_

The lights danced across the lawn in that direction.

Leo dashed for the wall, scaled it, and flipped onto the ground on the other side. I'm out, I MADE it, he thought as he ran through the tall grass, toward the woods. Not that it was much of a challenge _... whatta buncha doughnut eaters_!

He stopped under the canopy of trees, and checked his swords for damage. They seemed okay, probably a bit nicked from the fall, but he could fix that. He listened to the distant commotion as they continued to search for him.

He sensed someone moving quietly nearby, a shadow among the trees just above him, and his hand tightened on one sword hilt.

"Leo?" Renet's voice.

Leo let his breath out in relief. "Whew, Renet. Was wondering what happened to you. You okay?"

"Yeah! How about _you_? Thought you got caught, from all the ruckus. Was thinking of a plan to get you out - "

"Somebody stole the Sceptre!" Leo jumped up and kicked at a clump of grass in frustration. "It was _so_ close, I almost _had_ it in my hands!"

"I saw some guy wearing one of those white jumpsuits leave in a big hurry. I thought it was one of the government people, until I saw him climb over the wall, carrying something big in a bag. He had a car parked up on the dirt road, up there. If I'd known, I'd have gone and let the air of the tires, or something. But by the time I put two and two together, he was long gone."

"Any idea of who he is? You think we can locate him?"

Renet shook her head. "I dunno... but the way he was acting, he looked like he knew what he was after."

"Yeah, I know. He even had a key to the trunk that was holding the Sceptre. He knew just exactly where it was, and the way he was talking to himself, he considers it to be something of great value."

"I _doubt_ he knows what it's really about..."

"Government people, huh? How do you know?"

Renet sat in the grass, and leaned her back against a tree. "I saw the vehicles, said US Government on it. And something else, but couldn't make it out. Did you run into any of those suits?"

"Yeah, but it was no big deal, really. They weren't much of a challenge..."

Renet looked down, kicked at the ground. "Damn. Too bad we missed getting the Sceptre again. Bummer, huh?"

Leo stared at Renet. How could she be so nonchalant about this? He leaned his forehead against the tree trunk, and exhaled hard, to ease the tightness in his chest.

"Do you suppose," he asked... "Maybe one of those ripples Sim mentioned went by? How - _how'd_ three different parties freaking manage to show up here at the same time for this thing?"

Frustration flooded over him - he gripped at the tree bark, and tried to still his mind, re-center himself... don't think about them, not now... it will hurt too much...

 _So close!_

"That's a thought, Leo. Maybe. certainly it's not impossible. If so, I hope it won't affect the course the cube will take us next." He felt Renet's hand on his shoulder. "It's not over yet, " she said quietly. "Come on, we have to go, now."

~o~


	7. Chapter 4

**Paradox: Chapter Four**

In the shadows of trees, two figures materialized. Renet turned around, relieved no one had seen their arrival. She stowed the cube. "July 1, 1983..." she said softly. If there had been a time-ripple in 1953, it hadn't bothered the cube much...

Leo didn't answer, he was already moving through the trees, away from her.

"Huh? Leo-?" she called, but he didn't seem to be aware of her.

He headed to a section where the ground dipped down, overlooking a small creek below. When he stopped to crouch at the edge of a covering shrub, she knelt beside him. Wordlessly she waited, but Leo wasn't expecting danger. He was looking down at a sewer entrance, his face reflecting intense longing.

A finger pointed, reached towards the dark entrance. "This... This is where we come out into the Park from -" his voice cracked as he gestured in another direction. "I'm - there... Home..."

It's the time, Renet thought. It's one thing to be in the fifties, but now it's hit him. Can't let him get like this.

She placed a hand on his shoulder. "And you will, but right now I don't think it'd be a good idea to go visit yourself. The shock would be overwhelming. And I don't think Splinter would like having twins. Course, you guys nearly look alike anyway."

"We do not! Raph's got the biggest nose!"

Renet smiled, gotcha! "C'mon, we've got work to do."

She moved back through the trees and after checking to make sure it was clear, stepped out on the path.

Leo joined her, setting the hat on his head and flipping the flap on his coat up to hide his features. He was becoming more relaxed about moving in public.

"Renet? What if we mess up again?"

"Hey, third time's the charm! You can't worry about the _what ifs_ in this line of work. Unless you like headaches. Now let's go find us a hotel. We're staying first class tonight! Experiencing some of the finest in New York accommodations!"

The finest accommodations of New York all right, Leo thought a short time later, sizing up the situation. We haven't even been here half an hour and we're already being mugged!

They'd arrived in the evening, and the sun had soon dropped below the skyscrapers. The lamps were growing stronger as the dark night began to stretch out from the trees.

"Heya baaybee. Don't fight it, then I won't have ta get rough, ya know?" The one tough showed a switchblade, flipping it around his hand as he closed in on Renet.

Three others surrounded Leo, snickering. They didn't seem to be packing guns. That was a good thing.

Renet glared as the tall youth swaggered. "Think yous can handle the kiddy? While I show the lady what a real man is?"

"I don't think you can..." Leo grumbled, then suddenly spun into action. His hand snaked forward, pulling one kid in close for a twist of joints and a foot sweep that had the villain in agony on the ground in a second. One punched him low in the back, where, if not for shell, it would have hurt.

"Wha- tha - owwwww!" he moaned over his hand backing away in fear.

Laughing in a low chuckle, Leo ducked the third to get to the knife-wielder.

But Renet was not foolish after her years of time traveling. It was clear she knew knife fights were messy things, often a matter of what were you willing to sacrifice to get the knife. She stood quiet, appraising her macho man. Her purse carefully set for defensive purposes. Leo was pleased with her.

The macho tough puffed up, showed off by flipping the knife around as he stepped into her, until the incoming turtle did a foot sweep that had him down kissing dirt, Leo's knee in his back, and an arm twisted back in a pain-numbing hold.

Renet stomped on his other hand, and kicked the knife away, as the punk howled.

The one Leo had dodged around came at him from behind, Leo ducked again and grabbing his arms, went into a roll that had the punk landing with painful _thunk_ with the sound of snapping bone.

That kid started screaming, holding his arm.

The knife punk was enraged, and used his chance to scramble to his feet, scrabbling for his knife.

Grinning as the kid finally got it, Leo stood up, and reaching back - removing the cloth covering - drew a sword.

He did a quick show-off flash move, just to make it clear in terms the kid would understand, 'I know how to use this.' He took a ready stance, and waited, studying in his opponent in total stillness.

"What the $%&* are yous, man?! You jus' ain't right!" The punk fled, running with the others.

Leo sheathed the sword, and started shaking.

"Well done Leo! Uh... something wrong?"

"I... just fought people for the first time! I... never actually used all that stuff against anyone but my brothers in training."

Renet grinned, kissed him on the cheek. "My hero. Thanks."

Leo smiled back.

"Now, let's see about getting somewhere with a hot shower and no bed bugs!"

~o~

He yawned and rolled over. Snuggled back into the sheets, amazed at the sheer luxury of all this. Sleeping in such a huge bed. Ice machines, a color TV that worked perfectly, mints on the pillows...

He'd been in near hysterics over that. Candy in bed! Mikey would love this one!

Toilet paper all folded. Everything so incredibly neat and plush and clean. And so airy...

Renet had left early, so she could get a few things she would need for today. She'd left the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door, and told him he could order room service as long as he did not go wild on his breakfast.

"I won't do anything to attract attention. I am ninja," he'd said as she left. And promptly sunk back into the bed. It was not quite him to be so lazy, but every once in a while...

Leo'd had time after waking up the second time for a short work-out. He'd stayed light enough on his feet so as not to pound the floor. Even gotten a kick out of seeing himself in the mirrors. Then he'd briefly cleaned up while waiting for Room Service, staying in the bathroom until it was delivered. He was finishing eating a simple breakfast of oatmeal and fruit when Renet returned with a couple bags.

"Well today's the day to find this guy," she said draining the last of a cup of coffee. "Hope he's there on a Saturday or this could get very tricky."

"So he's at Columbia?"

"Yep." Renet finished loading the film into one of her purchases. "Say cheese!" she joked, pointing the Polaroid camera at the Sceptre. A bright flash and the picture was rolling out of the bottom. Leo was fascinated with the thing.

"Here," Renet said, handing him the picture. "Peel the cover off after a minute."

"You think this will work?"

"Do McDonald's clerks have zits?"

Leo grinned, watching the clock closely. "Think our plan is going to work?"

Renet sauntered off to the bathroom. "A little change of clothes, put my hair up just so, pout like Madonna, flash him the photo, and Mr. Scientist, AKA Dr. Destructo will be eating right out of my hand."

She shut the bathroom door, humming.

The minute up, Leo peeled the cover off, and there was the Sceptre, captured on film. Just like the TV commercials! He picked the camera up, studying it. Donnie would have loved this.

An odd string of curses echoed from the bathroom, and seconds later, the door opened as Renet came out in an extremely tight pair of shorts.

"Leo, it's not polite to stare. Stupid fashion trends! 'Daisy Dukes' indeed."

FLASH!

"You fiend!" Renet cried as a laughing Leo grabbed the Polaroid and ran to lock himself in the bathroom until it developed.

"All right, Leo. Enjoy your laugh. I'm outta here. I'm already running late! Remember you're on Guard Duty!"

"Yeah, Renet! Good luck!" Leo called. Hearing the door to the room close, he peeled the cover back. "Not bad. Great facial expression!"

No reply. Cautiously, he opened the bathroom door. Was she really gone?

On alert, Leo crept out into the room, but she didn't ambush him from anywhere. He sat down with a sigh at the table, set the picture down and stared glumly at it.

He was disappointed she hadn't faked him out, he'd been hoping for an attack. Being with her was a blast, but he missed his brothers. Badly. It's ok, everything'll be fine real soon. We'll get it right this time!

Resting his chin on his hands on the table, he came eye-level with the Sceptre...

...which he hadn't held since the day he'd tried to break it. He could still recall the shock it had given him. Numbing all the way up his arms in a weird, non-tingly kind of way. "Are we doing the right thing now?" he asked it.

It just sat there, reflecting light, sands very dimly glowing pink.

"Well, it is your fault I'm here." Leo stood up and walked over to the window. Renet kept the sheers closed so no one could spy into the room. It also meant his view of the day-lit world was veiled.

"July 3. What am I doing? Almost noon... oh yeah. Lunch. Mikey is about to burn the rice..."

He frowned, it seemed like months ago, what he'd done, was doing today. "No wonder Renet gets confused with all this time hopping. But just wait till I get back! Splinter's going to be amazed at how I've changed! I hope he'll be proud of me."

Turning back, he wondered what to do with his time. TV was just soap operas right now. And he didn't want to get in trouble jumping on the beds again. Although that had been fun last night, jumping from one to the other, flipping and flying back again.

Until Renet distracted him with planning how to get the scientist to let her near the Sceptre.

The Sceptre.

That's what it all came down to. That odd, clawed hand. Those mysterious sands... glowing brighter...

Leo's fingers hovered over the light, light that gave off no heat. The hand beckoned to him, the hand that pulled him from death as the water closed over him...

Fingers touched the hand...

And closed around the Sceptre, lifting it.

Part of him was wondering why it didn't shock him. He shouldn't be holding it! He was only supposed to be watching it.

But it hummed to him. Sang to him. Of Power. Of All Things Connected. Of Time...

Scared, Leo set it down and backed away. "I'm sorry! Don't zap me again, ok?"

The glow of the sands dimmed, but otherwise the Sceptre didn't answer him.

"Yeah. Fine. Think I'll go take a nice long, hot bath. That ok with you?" Leo headed for the bathroom, then stopped. "But I'm not supposed to let you out of my sight. It's my duty..."

Heaving a sigh, Leo reached out again, gingerly picking the Sceptre up, taking it to the bathroom and setting it down on a towel on the counter. No shocks. No strange occurrences.

Letting out a long-held breath, Leo set about filling the nice, large tub. "Guys'd think I'm crazy talking to this thing. Better not tell them about this part..."

~o~

Renet batted her eyelashes ever so slightly. Hours of walking, talking and searching were over. Success was almost here! "Would you like to see it?" From her purse she slipped the Polaroid out and dangled it before him, like a carrot before a horse. She'd gone to the University with the cover of wanting to be a Transfer Student. Had worked up a whole background story, and knew more than enough of physics and science to talk her way into an introduction interview to the professor she needed to meet: Jay Mansour. She impressed him with her knowledge, spiced it with some feminine whiles - he was rather handsome actually - the tiniest dash of her old 'bimbo-in-need-of-male-help' routine. Had finally found a way of bringing up 'a certain odd artefact' in line with the talk of his research projects, this mysterious object that had given her the drive to enter science as a career choice. And that her current University wasn't capable of helping her find the answers about. Smirked to herself that what she was saying really was based on truths in its way.

"My God..." the man breathed, reaching for the picture.

She let him hold it. _You're mine!_

"What? You have some idea?" she asked, all innocence and wonder.

"You said it was your uncle's?"

"Yes. He was always hoping someone could investigate it, though it didn't seem to have any great value to him really. It has this most unusual glow, but with no heat! It emanates some sort of energy, but what powers it? The setting seems old, but what it is and what it's for?" She shrugged, gave him an intense look.

"Very well, Miss...?"

"Renet. You can call me Renet."

Jay nodded, eyes glazed as she took the photograph from his fingers. Hooked completely!

He blinked. "Renet. So you're wanting to be a transfer student here. How would you like to join me in my research? This object appears to have something in common with my current line of studies on alternative energy sources..."

"Why, I'd love too! Once I get all the paper work processed I will make sure to enroll in your classes."

"Great. How's Monday sound?"

"Uh... huh?" Don't look too eager now, be confused.

"I know what you're thinking, but it's a holiday! A perfect day for doing research!"

"Mm hmm," Renet added in a hint of having caught a suggestion, and gave him a flirtatious look. "Meaning, you just can't wait till Fall term then..."

Jay blushed a bit, "Uh... Yes. No! Uh... What I mean is that we'll have full access to all diagnostic equipment, and no one else requiring usage. We can study the object now, before the semester starts and everything gets crazy."

Renet paused a bit, as though dealing with shock of being overwhelmed with this Opportunity. He really was the hard-driven scientist she knew he had to have been - be. The other Sceptre had his full interest, of course. She was talking to the man who destroyed the world...

"Wow! This is incredible! Can I get a quick tour now? Get familiar with the place?"

He looked at his watch. "I wish I could, but I've got an early dinner appointment, got to keep that grant money coming in don't you know? But feel free to take a quick look around. I'll get Sue to get you a key and pass for the lab door."

"Thank you so much!" she smiled her best.

"So I'll see you Monday afternoon then?"

"It's a date! The object and I will be here!"

Jay got up to shake her hand, then escorted her to Sue, his assistant. She was a genuinely nice woman, and very intelligent. Renet immediately liked her. She got a tour of the labs, memorizing as best she could all the critical stuff for the planned secret return visit with Leo. If Sue seemed suspicious of Renet in any way, she didn't show it.

Renet left with pass and key in hand, comfortable there would be success this time.

~o~

They'd waited until nightfall. Very late Sunday night, or more properly, the opening hours of the Fourth.

Renet had slept in, waking to find Leo in meditation. It was after 11 am before they even sat down for the planning session, Renet making sketches and working out plans with Leo based on her surveillance trip of the place. At one point, Leo groaned he really needed his brothers and Splinter to do this right. She reminded him he had done fine so far. Certainly they could come up with something to deal with the security system. This was only a university building after all, not the World Trade Center.

She'd made a lunch run for some pizza. Then back out to get the stuff needed for tonight's raid. Finally they had taken an early evening siesta, Leo showing a few signs of restlessness from being cooped up, it took him a while to fall asleep.

Now, garbed in black, she followed Leo's cues until they arrived at the back of the lab building.

There he left her, climbing a tree to a ledge, and then onto the fire escape. In seconds he was silently at the top.

She checked her watch as she moved to the side entrance, pulling a rock and three full beer bottles out of her backpack. Shame to waste all of it, she thought uncapping one to take a swig.

"Blech, cheap stuff!" she spat. "I'm spoiled from too many trans-dimensionally good beers. Guess this swill can go do its job."

Here she was about to play the truant again. Picking up her armaments, a check to insure no one was around, she ran forward and chucked the rock through the glass doors. Before the tinkling of glass shards settled, the beer bottles were hurled in, followed by a long string of firecrackers hastily lit by the lighter. She heard the security alarm ringing between the bursts as she ran to the back, Leo coming down the fire escape to lower the bottom section for her.

She moved as silently as she could, following him to the upper door he'd opened at the same time she set the alarm off. He picked up the small bag he'd used as a prop, letting the door close behind them. Moving down the hall, they entered a dark lecture room to hide between the rows of seats while waiting out the police and security check.

Admittedly there were a number of ways they could have handled this. But with not enough time to visit the building again to fully learn the security set up, they decided making use of the holiday was the safest option: 'drunken vandals'.

Half an hour passed in full silence. No one had so much as walked through the hallway.

Renet was the one who started to fidget. Leo seemed fully in his element, so still and pulled into himself, as though he was barely there. She did her best to emulate that, but her mind was no more at rest than her need to shift every two minutes. She flitted onto imagining this as torture for her past pranks being a less than stellar student, onto what those glorious pranks had been. Onto this, that, and nearly everything. The cycle kept coming back to discomfort at this lack of activity, anathema to her very being. She was almost ready to scream at the silence when at last she heard him take a deep breath. He rose slowly, making it a stretching of muscles, while she nearly cried out from un-kinking painfully cramped-up legs, clinging to the seats to help herself up.

"This is why I am a Time Mistress and not a ninja," she whispered with a grinning grimace.

Leo motioned to her, demonstrating a stretch he clearly wanted her to do.

She complied, and felt the pain ease. Once more and she could move without stumbling, guiding the way to the lab.

She used her key to get into the lab. They looked for security cameras or other obvious alarms, didn't see any. So they began searching out the spots likely enough to hold the Sceptre. Renet had learned simple lock picking long ago, so she was no slouch as for getting into cabinets. They moved into Jay's office, and then to the inner lab. As much as she was tempted to look for his research on the Sceptre, she kept herself to the task of finding the thing so they could be done and go home. Whatever the that would mean to Leo, Time would be saved and the ripple taken care of. Renet was fully aware of this being personal to her home and family in the Null Void too. Lose this and she could say "oops sorry" to the end of time, to no one and nothing left...

Leo stared at the table, odd thingamajigs and lasery-looking things around it.

It was in the middle of a room, special radiation-proofed James Bond set-up. Not as futuristic or unearthly wildly designed as things in the 79th Level of Null Time. But fully intimidating. Terrifying. He didn't like this sterile place. It haunted of nightmares he and his brothers had.

In this closed off place, all one's attention was directed to whatever was on that table.

One would be able to forget everything else out there...

Renet bumped into him, and he jumped.

"Oops, sorry," she said as he relaxed from the defensive posture. Adding a weak grin as some hidden emotion crossed her face.

"I think we're out of places to look Renet..."

She nodded. Defeated. Shoulders drooped, she was tired and worn out. "I was afraid of this. He must bring it in with him. Dammit! And we don't have enough time to find his home address and raid that." She heaved a sad sigh, "Guess we wasted all this effort."

Leo didn't like seeing her like this. It wasn't the end of the world, yet. "Splinter says 'no snowflake ever falls in the wrong place'."

A puzzled face stared at him. "Huh?"

He shrugged, smirking. Guess she wasn't expecting Zen in the middle of a failed break-in mission. "Uhm... I guess that nothing is wasted."

Renet frowned at him. "Like every attempt we've made? If you say so. Come on, let's get out of here."

Oddly, Leo found himself laughing.

~o~

Renet came out of the bathroom surprised to see Leo still awake. He was flipping through a travel book on the city. Renet turned off the television. "Bed time! If we don't get some sleep we're gonna mess up tomorrow."

Leo set the book aside and slipped under the sheets. "This time traveling is pretty wild stuff! Almost makes me wish I could keep on doing this with you. But I'm looking forward to getting back to my brothers and Splinter."

"You were always pretty cool about it. But Raph," she laughed, "Raph hates it. He has this knack for landing on his head."

Leo snickered. Then got serious, "Renet? What's gonna happen when I meet you in three years? I mean, from after when I get home. I didn't know you then, right?" His fingers toyed with the edge of the sheet, twisting it.

Renet looked thoughtful as she sat on the edge of his bed. The words of Leo's question itself were a tangle. "No, you didn't already know me. And at that point, I was seven years younger, and I was meeting you guys for the first time too."

Leo frowned. "Then... then what about me?"

Renet sighed. She'd known this would come up sooner or later. But Leo filled her silence, "It's in your past, so you already know that?"

"Once we fix the timeline... you won't remember this one." She watched his face fall in disappointment.

"Then I won't get to tell them-"

"Leo, don't you dare get maudlin on me. I'll remember! And I will come and tell you the story."

"But what if you don't remember either?"

"I'm not the Great Paradox. I'll remember." Renet re-tucked the blankets around him. In three years he'd still be the same height, but the scrawniness would be filled-out. Power with gracefulness would replace the youthful awkwardness. And he would never ask questions this way. The things that were to come would change him dramatically.

She thought of herself in comparison, she'd been a downright brat when she'd "stolen" the Sceptre. But she imagined a thirteen year-old Michelangelo and Raphael... Donatello... baby sitter's Hell that would be. Poor Splinter, how did he handle it?

"But what if I don't believe you?"

"Well, I don't know about that. It hasn't happened yet."

Leo groaned. His mouth twisted as he puzzled through space/time conundrums. Then he brightened again. "The stuff I saw when we were-mind-linked. That's all gonna happen?"

"Assuming we fix time - yes."

"Wow! So I really will see dinosaurs! What else do I do?"

This too was something Renet had been expecting. "Well, I don't know what you guys did until I met you. And with my crazy schedule, I've certainly missed most of what you do between the times I see you. But I do know that I will meet four brave, noble, and totally gnarly dudes on a rooftop in New York one night in 1986."

Reaching up to turn off the light, she kissed him lightly on his brow, "Good night Leo."

"G'night Renet."

She knew he might think she was dodging his questions, but she had told him the truth, the truth as she knew it. She settled into her bed, I'm gonna miss him when we get this fixed.

"Renet? Raph's gonna be taller than me, isn't he?"

"Good Night Leo!"

~o~

It was late morning when he stirred to wakefulness. Considering it had been 4 am by the time they got to bed, that was fine. Then he remembered what today was.

The Fourth of July...

Right now, Splinter was making them work out. Hard. And being all excited at going to the fireworks, it was not one of their better efforts in concentration. "Hmm," Splinter had said rubbing his chin. "If this is the best you can do, I am not sure I can take such as this out into the world this night. The risks for a bit of entertaining fluff are great. Only those who show me they are worthy may make go..."

But for Splinter the fireworks were not just entertaining fluff either. It was like Chinese New Year, only bigger in scale and much warmer outside. Leo knew Splinter enjoyed the 'demon-chasing' light show.

Except that the fireworks that would go off early, _had_ unleashed a world-devouring demon.

His head spun dizzily. "I'm thinking of this like it's the past!"

In fact, it was their last and final chance. Future.

"Forget what I said last night. I HATE time travel."

Renet stirred. Mumbled sleepily. "Tribble? No thanks. Fuzzballs. Worse 'n dust bunnies." She rolled over and fell asleep again.

Leo closed his mouth that was hanging open. Sat with his head in hands. "Never mind, I don't want to know." Which wasn't quite true. He was totally torn between wanting to go back to just being the simple ninja student of Splinter, and what impact this incredible journey had done to him.

How could he even go back to the pettiness of fights with Raph when he had been on the Titanic?

How could he look at Mike's apparent stupid goofiness when he had seen him dead?

How could he belittle Don for wasting time on those gadget things when he had seen the 79th Level of Null Time?

How could he face Splinter's Lessons, all that frustrating and mind-wearying weight of knowledge he was putting to real use?

How could he go back?

Maybe Renet is right, it is better if I forget all this.

But part of him wanted so bad to tell them all of it. How good it had felt to use the stuff Splinter had taught him. Even to admit he'd been wrong about some things. Life was a lot bigger and more complicated than he'd believed in his ignorance.

He hopped off the bed to gently tap Renet's shoulder. "Renet, time to get up."

Renet groaned. Leo repeated the request.

"Is it afternoon already?"

"It is now."

Renet grumbled as she headed for the shower. Leo used the time for a work out. "Figures it would come down the Last Chance," he snorted, honing his focus by recalling the details of the lab. Now that he had the place known, and he knew the destruction would not happen till evening, he felt better about this attempt.

"We didn't waste that trip last night." And last night had been Fun! There had been a thrill that ran with the fear something would mess them up, the adventure of it. But having the confidence he could do it. They had things planned out...

An awake and cheerful Renet emerged from the bathroom. "Ahh, much better. Except these gnadding tight shorts!"

"Gnadding?"

Renet giggled. "Oh! A friend started, that, it's dang backwards! Sometimes I do slip up on what I say when."

"Geez! Do you realize how much we say has words about time in them? It's giving me a headache!" Leo groaned, gathering his gear together, checking it all over for weaknesses. First the leather, then the blades. He still felt a thrill of pride at hefting his Splinter-bestowed swords.

"I will not fail you Splinter... my brothers..." he whispered with a reverent bow.

The whole process also a mind-clearing ritual, as he put all the pads and harness on, settled the swords in place, and lastly tied the bandanna around his head.

A grinning Renet appraised him. "Very impressive. You know, you have really changed..."

"It's the years." Leo joked. Going over without thinking about it, he picked up and handed her the Sceptre with a bow. "Shall we?"

"Let's blow this pop stand!" Renet reached to take the Sceptre, only to fall backwards as it gave her a shock. Leo almost dropped it in surprise. "Renet?!" he asked, voice cracking with panic.

She reeled in surprise from the jolt.

"What could this possibly mean?!" she wondered aloud, her face drained of color. "My Sceptre has _never_ done this to me!"

Setting it down on the table, Leo backed away. "There, try again. Must have been my mistake holding it."

Tentatively, she touched it, her hand jerking back in reflex as it shocked her again.

"I'm sorry Renet! I didn't mean to mess up the Sceptre!"

Renet stood in frozen tenseness. "No, Leo, no... This is _not_ your fault. If the Sceptre is doing this to me, then it has its reasons."

She looked him over with a searching gaze. Being studied, probed, interrogated, and questioned by her eyes disturbed him. He took a step backwards in rising fear.

"It wants _you_ , Leonardo. It has thrown me over. For you..." She chewed a fingernail, clearly upset. "Dear Sands of Time, Sim was right! Oh, Leo," she said with tears in her eyes. _"You are the Holder of Sceptre of the Sacred Sands of Time now."_

He couldn't accept what she was saying! "But it hates me! It shocked me when - "

Renet grabbed his shoulders, cutting him off. "Leo, we don't-" she sighed. "We _don't_ have time for this. There are things that each Holder must learn. And I have to teach you, or we are going to fail. It takes Years to train Holders!...years..."

She could not stop the tears. "Sim, dammit! I hope you're laughing at this! 'What goes around'? But this is _not a joke!_ EVERYTHING is at stake in this!"

She wanted to take hold of the Sceptre and beat it to dust for its insolence. It was HER Sceptre! And with what was the single most important thing she would ever do at hand, it betrayed her!

A green finger gently lifted a tear from her face. She looked into eyes that overflowed with sorrows as deep as hers. She had Seen them. The Sceptre had chosen her for its reasons. Now she had to bend to its decision to choose Leo -

"Ok," she sucked in a shuddering breath. Wiped the rest of the tears away. "Well, good thing we know what's going to happen when, 'cause we are going to be a bit delayed. I don't have the time to teach you all you should know, but I will do my damndest to make sure you don't mess up."

~o~

 _Admit it._

 _You're lost._

 _And this confusion isn't helping._

 _You made a wrong turn somewhere._

Leo stopped near a grate, squinting upward, hoping for some clue to where he was.

He was for the first time since the- Accident-back in the haunts beneath the City. Their streets.

Renet had watched him descend, asking in concern if he was sure he was able to do this. That she could try to find some other way of getting him to the lab with her.

 _I needed to do this..._

At first, it was very eerie. This was a homecoming of sorts.

His limited view through the grate showed nothing distinctive, so he climbed carefully at the next manhole, picking a very quiet one. He was in an alley off of 94th.

I am going the wrong way! Reoriented, he headed for the feel of the subway, to get along the 1/9 route. If he could stick roughly with that, it would guide him right to Columbia University.

But his self confidence was fading. He was totally alone in unfamiliar sewers. And the longer he was down here, the harder it was to keep nipping hounds of memory at bay.

He walked nervously. Jumpy. Edgy. Shadow and odd light, echoing sounds of a subway passing stirred up overly vivid memories of the sewers rumbling and collapsing. His leg kinked up thinking of the days pinned with the rock. Summer heat smells brought up the stale air and worse.

 _Raph's dead stare._

He stopped, bent forward in a dizzying, near black-out. He gulped for air in shallow gasps, his heart racing. His family dead and mangled ringed him round, he was trapped, hands reaching out as legs no longer supported him. Dropping to his knees, the Sceptre Renet had gingerly helped rig to his sword harness thunked him in the shell.

 _Holder of the Sceptre?_

 _All that Responsibility?_

 _All that Power?_

His mind screamed denial.

"I don't want to be a Time Lord!"

 _I'm just a kid!_

He sobbed brokenly, a loss of the youth he should have been for all the death and destruction he had seen. He had no father, no mother ever known, no Sensei. No one to hold him, guide him.

 _I don't know enough for this! I'm going to screw up!_

 _And then it all ends again..._

 _Ends..._

Something took that thought and shoved it in his face.

 _End._

 _Death._

That was what he was afraid of. He could not see what was going to happen to him when this was done. He'd toyed at it, never looked it full on. Renet didn't even know what was going to happen to him either.

He felt used. A puppet. Even a little betrayed.

He felt very scared at that Unknown.

 _What would it be?_

 _Oblivion?_

 _Renet said I won't remember this stuff._

 _What is going to happen to ME?_

 _Who is 'me' ?_

He thought of the Other Leo as a separate person now. Knew he was not the same at all. Not from the moment the Sceptre had appeared and rescued him.

 _But for what? So I can cease to exist? He goes on and I don't? He never knows me?_

 _So what am I? Nothing?_

 _Aren't we the same being?_

He howled a torn and ragged primal cry. Lost in the twisted blackness of despair, until he started coughing from the crying.

Acting like a baby, part of him said. But that only made it worse. It sounded of words of his brothers. Cutting and cold words. That thing of 'grow up'.

He choked again, swallowed hard, laying there a shaking helpless mess. The worst part was, there were no answers he could find. There was no one to tell him the truth. He only had himself. And he was doing a miserable job of it.

 _Some hero I am._

 _What does nothing mean?_

 _No value?_

 _So what happens to me? Am I real? Don't I get to Live?_

 _Or am I being punished for being a mistake?_

 _I can't even run away-I have no choice at all-I never had a choice in this! If I don't go, we all die._

 _If I go-?_

 _How can there be two of us?!_

 _Why two?_

 _Who am I?_

He choked again, another fit of coughing.

 _"Breathe Leo"_ , a voice of memory whispered. Splinter's voice. _"Go back to the most basic thing you do, that you do normally without thinking."_

He pushed himself up, forced himself into a half-lotus position. Knees touching the ground, he anchored his body. Focused on counting the breaths, and returning to that every time his mind wandered into the tangles. His tears dried as his breathing evened out. Centering and stilling his mind.

Unbidden, another lesson of Splinter's from the Zen masters arose.

 _"'Even truth is to be relinquished. To say nothing of untruth. When you recognize nature and accord with its flow - there is no more elation and no more sorrow.'"_

And for the first time, he truly Understood it. Glimpsed the essence of it.

He jumped up with a new resolve gone beyond thought and logic. Leo still didn't fully Know what he was to do, or Who he was, but he had something to Do. All he had to do was go with it. Then the truths would reveal themselves.

Brushing the dirt off his legs, Leo felt a return to normalcy with his new resolve. "Gah... Got to find some clean water so I don't get to Renet looking like-like I rolled in the sewers!"

~o~

Renet sat on the park bench. In a near doze. She'd called to say she would be late. But Jay seemed to be late himself.

Given rough travel estimates, Leo should be here any time.

Bells tolled out the hour of six.

She sighed and shifted to a new position. Pacing and walking had worn her out after her cab dropped her off.

Waiting again. Don't like this. Leaves me too much time to think. Hoping I told him all he's going to have to know. That I didn't mess up something. He looked so overwhelmed and unhappy, that I could not stay jealous of what the Sceptre did.

But oh how I see how other Time Lords must have felt when the Sceptre chose the snotty brat: me.

Not that it still didn't hurt. After all, there was some pride to being the Time Lord to correct this paradox ripple. Even if some would hate her all the more for it. And now she was going to be in the back seat, the sidekick, the back-up. "Long's it ain't bein' a red shirt..."

She ran fingers through errant hair sticking in her mouth and tucked it back behind her ear.

Settling back, she closed her eyes, listening to the city sounds of New York on July 4, 1983...

When she snapped awake, it was to the horror it was nearly seven!

No Leo.

 _"Shit!"_

The whole thing was slipping away now.

 _Think! He said they were on their way to the fireworks-on their WAY to. Not at._

 _Which means they would have left several hours beforehand so they could be there wherever they went to watch from._

 _Which means-_

Renet stood up. _It means it's going to happen anytime now!_

She grabbed her bag, fumbling for the pass and keys as she dashed for the lab.

"Looks like I am going to have to do this without him. Nothing ever goes easy does it?!"

The front doors were unlocked. She entered and used the stairs, having no patience for elevators.

She used the key to get into the lab. Found by the lights that Jay was indeed there. But not in his office.

"Dear Sands - he's in the shielded room!"

And the door to that was locked. A lock she had not gotten a key to, that last night Leo had picked for her.

She knocked. Then knocked again. And again.

No response.

"So much for our date - "

There was a yellow Post-it note on the floor. It must have fallen from the door. She snatched it to read: _"Hi Renet, started prelims, will check to see if you made it after. Have to keep door locked for safety reasons. - Jay"_

Start prelims?

Yeah, preliminary to something you don't want!

Frantically, she studied the lock, wondering if she could get it picked.

A quick search turned up a narrow metal bar and she started jiggling the lock with it. I've done this before too, she growled.

The bar snapped, leaving the end jammed in the lock.

Too much!

She flew through a long list of curses of many travels, throwing herself against the door in total frustration. A rage born of fear.

"Renet?" a soft voice asked.

It sunk in, and she turned to see Leo.

She almost leapt to hug him.

"He's in there, isn't he?"

She nodded. He was very composed, even though she could see the edge of Things Unknown in his eyes. _He's in the grip of this destiny now._ It left her unwilling to even ask why he was so long getting here; time was moving, and moving them with its tides.

Leo motioned her aside, touched the door, leaned his weight into it. Then took a step back, and in a sudden snapping kick, his foot impacted near the handle, the lock exploding and falling into pieces as the door flew open, a long crack running up its length.

Neither paused to admire the handiwork, as Renet ran into the shielded lab area, Leo trailing her cautiously.

Behind the window, behind the sealed door, a goggled Jay was working a laser. The other Sceptre was laying on the table.

Renet yelled, pounding on the window. He stopped, surprised to see her. He turned off equipment, then walked to the door.

She felt damp sweat chill as a shiver wracked her. Relief. _They had it now!_

Until she saw beyond him as he opened the door, and knew what that glow meant. Trouble!

"Renet?! Do you realize how dangerous it was for you to interrupt me? Didn't you see the note?"

"How - " Renet choked. "How _far_ were you going to go? Drill that _open_?!"

The man's face froze in a mix of awe and horror. His mouth hung open.

"My apologies, but your work is done," Leo said. In another fast move, the Turtle closed in and with the man in a tight hold, twisted some things and pushed on others to send him into unconsciousness. It was mere seconds, and Leo was letting the scientist slip to the ground.

"Help me get him tied up and out of here. I don't know how long he'll be out."

Renet pulled the rope and gag out of her bag. They trussed him up and took him back out to a closet.

They shoved a filing cabinet in front of it as precaution, even though Leo was fairly certain Jay would not get free of the knots he had tied.

She noticed the grimness in him until he was done. Then he lost the sorrow, but the odd seriousness remained. Almost as though he was only half listening to her.

"We did it Leo! We stopped him!" She was not about to bring up what she thought she saw and what that could mean about the Sceptre. That she was sure it was not going to be as simple as picking the thing up and leaving. They'd arrived a little too late for that.

"Renet, promise you'll tell me what I did, someday, when it's ok to... if you remember me..."

"Of course I will, Leo." She gave him a quick hug, then headed for the inner lab. She heard a small rustling noise behind her...

And then the world went suddenly very dark, very black...

~o~


	8. Chapter 4B

**Paradox Chapter Four B**

He was hearing things. Silent but seemingly audible murmurings were haunting Leonardo now, and they had become immediately louder the very instant that Renet had gone down...

 _Access. Bridge. Conduit._

Leonardo couldn't be absolutely sure that the words forming in his head were popping out of his own memory, or if they were something that the Sceptre was trying to communicate. His memory fogged now, thinking of that time, that Sceptre-induced psychic intimacy that the thing had pulled him into with Renet. His thoughts, Renet's or the Sceptre's, he couldn't be certain of anything that related to the - no, he corrected himself, not _the_ Sceptre...it's _my_ Sceptre.

Just what was the Sceptre? The question, when it struck him that time, was very definitely his own. What was the Sceptre? He still wasn't clear on that.

 _Access. Bridge. Conduit_...The words formed again in his mind. _Oh God._ Leo thought _. It wants to play a damned alphabet game..._

 _Okay, so I'll play_. Damn sure he didn't have any better ideas.

ABC...Access. Bridge Conduit. Okay, got those...

D. Donatello. Donnie would have liked this. Donnie might even have understood this. They got the wrong Turtle for the job...

ABC. It was probably that simple. The Sceptre _was_ an access, a bridge, and a conduit. Through to -

E. Elsewhere. Or Eternity.

There were too many Cosmic Concepts. Missed too much of D...But the letter D had too many bad connotations. Damage. Devastation. Destruction. Death.

Next letter please!

F. Forever. See E...Eternity. How about Fix the Damn Timeline? Fix it Forever.

And then G. God. _God!_ Definition or prayer?

H. Hell. Nope, don't like that, not one bit. Skip that one. Just in case.

Hope. Much better. Hope I can do this, hope I can get it figured out in time...

Leonardo pushed open the shielded door into the lab. He shut it behind him and locked it, not wanting Renet to get in after him. She would try, would come charging into this place, heedless of the radiation warnings she'd been dishing out herself. He locked her out, locked her behind the radiation shields that the signs on the walls had said were there.

Hitting her had been one of the _hardest_ things he'd ever had to make himself do...

The Sands within his Sceptre were glowing blue, pulsating brighter and brighter with every step he took toward the other one...

I. _Idiot!_ That man took the damn thing apart!

The clawed handle, twin of the one he had in his fist, was lying beside the Crystal it had held. The Sands inside the other crystal were pulsating orange and pink. There was a very fine hairline crack in the crystal, and the Sands were shifting along it, the tiny grains pulsing their way up and down the vertical length of the fracture, almost as if...

As if they were trying to get out. The thought chilled him.

I. Intelligent. The Sceptre wasn't supposed to be. He was wondering though, seriously questioning that assumption. But his Sceptre didn't communicate either confirmation or denial about it.

Probably it was all inter-dimensional physics, and nothing that he understood any better than the thing he was hanging onto. Maybe those grains were just attracted into this dimension. That was what the crystal and the claw were supposed to prevent, so the Lords had said, guessing themselves. His eyes traced the pattern that the clawed fingers made around the crystal of his own Sceptre. And they formed an almost even spiral. Maybe the claws weren't just decorative. Maybe they functioned as some sort of a containment field -

I. Ignorance. He was guilty of it, terribly, dreadfully guilty and aware of it too...

He knew next to nothing about what he was doing, or should have been doing with a Time-Master's Artefact. But he knew volumes compared to this scientist Jay, who had taken a laser to the crystal of the other one.

A scientist who had only been doing what all scientists did. Searching for knowledge. Seeking to understand. And in doing so, had taken a laser to the one and only thing standing between himself and Somewhere Else, where the same rules just didn't apply.

 _God. He's -_

J. Junked it. He's Junked it!

Leo didn't like the look of the emanations from the damaged crystal. The air around him was pricklish, it was oppressive, heavy - like the air before a violent storm. He decided not even to guess at what sorts of radiation might right now be bombarding him, or how long he might stand it. He may already have taken a lethal dosage, now that it did occur to him.

K. Kill. It was the only word that came to mind. Another bad letter. Radiation kills...

L. Probably the most important letter of all. Life begins with an L. So does Love.

He found L very depressing. L words simply weren't in keeping with the situation much.

M. Michelangelo... _Gonna Make it Right, Mikey -_

N. Nuclear Nightmare. He'd thought it himself. That someone had nuked the city. This junked Sceptre _had_ nuked the city, put him in this most unenviable of positions and would nuke the city again if he didn't do something to stop it. According to the Old Lord's theory, it was going to do a lot worse once it was through.

No. No way. Never.

He was going to Fix the Timeline, so that it wouldn't happen. The Old Lord had said that too. That he was _Nexus..._

Whatever that meant, definitions aside.

O. For the Old Lord Simultaneous. Leo had liked him, once he'd finally gotten used to him. Old Sim was something like Splinter, under all the crusty stuff. Right now, Leo was wishing that Sim was there and would tell him what to do.

O. How about O for getting it Over With. He wished he knew how. He very fervently wished he knew how. He'd brought his Sceptre, had come here, all the way to the source of the problem and now he didn't know what he was expected to do with it. He stared down at the blue-pulsing Sands inside the crystal. _Talk to me, dammit, I don't know what I'm supposed to -_

Open.

The word jolted into his head. Open? Now was that just another O word that his subconscious had dredged up or was it actually an instruction?

 _Damn this thing anyway! Open what? Open..._

 _'Open your mind, Leo_ \- ' Renet had said. And said it _through_ the Sceptre. _'That's how it works.'_

It _had_ been a learning process, forced onto him.

 _I have to open my mind to open the access._

His glance went to the damaged crystal, still glowing orange, still throwing out whatever deadly radiations it was. _I must be toast by now. Real stupid, just to be standing here. Do something Leo!_

But what was he supposed to do? He just didn't understand. Then again...

 _You don't have to understand electricity to use a light switch._

And that was true too.

O. Oversimplify it. He didn't have to understand the Sceptre. He just had to use it.

Experimentally, Leo brought his own Sceptre down toward the other. It only went so far, and then he met resistance. Not quite like hitting a stone wall, more like hitting a rubber one. It was like pushing against an opposing magnetic field, the closer the crystals came, the more resistance there was.

 _Like forces repel._

He tried again, with identical result. There was some sort of a physical limit of approach between these two things. Contact couldn't be the answer then. So waving his own Sceptre at the thing obviously wasn't going to be enough to make it disappear. It was physics, not magic. But it might as well have been voodoo, for all he knew about how to make it work. He was feeling quite, quite powerless.

P. Power. The Sceptre was also supposed to be the most powerful object in the known Universe. There was power here, no doubt. It was pouring raw through the air, making his skin crawl. Somehow, _somehow_ , he had to put all that power back in its proper place.

You are Nexus. Open the access...

 _You are!_ Leo started. Not I am. But _you are-_

 _That_ had come from the Sceptre, he hadn't said that to himself.

Leonardo closed his eyes, breathing deeply, trying to calm his racing pulse, trying not to think about what might happen, once he did get it figured out. What he had to do, was suicide. _Kamikaze_ hadn't occurred to him, back under the K...

He had already committed to it. It wasn't a matter of deciding anymore. He'd seen Splinter meditate a million times - it was a matter of concentration. Of focusing...

But his heart was hammering. He felt anything but calm, thinking suicidal thoughts. This was not quite the solution he'd really expected.

 _Think about something else. Finish the dratted alphabet before you go._

P. Was that where he'd been? Ok then - Power. Purpose. Paradox. Prevent...he put all of that into his head, sensed the Sceptre respond distantly with an echo of the intent. The Sceptre resonated, coming into tune with the intention.

Q. Quick. Do it quick, while there's still time.

 _Open up._

Relax. Relax, relax. relax...

R. _Oh God_...Raph. Renet...

S. Same tug at the heartstrings...Splinter _. I'm scared Splinter, real scared this time. What should I do? What should I -_

He knew. Knew that answer too, in his heart. _'What you must do, my son.'_ That was just what Splinter would have said. _'Do what you must do...'_

T. Trust. Trust it will all work out. Trust that when he restored the timeline that everything would go back to what it was meant to have been.

 _We'll all survive. We'll all survive and get to meet Renet again in a couple of years, we'll all get to travel time and see the -_

U. Universe. Get to see more of the Universe than most ever do. Use the Sceptre to Save the Universe.

He didn't feel anywhere near high and mighty enough to do that. Never had. But Something _was_ working though. The blue glow from his Sceptre was spreading outwards to envelope the crystal, which previously had been transparent. It touched the clawed holder, and those carved fingers began to shine blue too. The whole hand went, and then the energy crept down the long handle, toward his own fingers...

He closed his eyes. He would only distract himself.

V. Very, very scary, going into the Void. There can't be two of me...if the other one continues, what happens to this version? Yeah, _very_ scary, for sure...

W. Great letter!

Who. Me. For whatever reason...

What. God knows.

Where. Here, I guess.

When. Now?

Why. Hell of a good question. Go back and check L again. Maybe L has everything to do with it.

X. X. Damn stupid letter, X. Hardly anything begins with it. X. Only X-rays. Probably lots of those here right now. _Hmm._ X. Roman numeral. Ten. _Countdown._.. nine... eight... seven... six... five...

The blue glow had reached beyond his hand, when he cracked an eyelid to look. Half his arm was aglow...and he hadn't felt a thing, not even a tingle. Maybe it wouldn't hurt. He shut the eye again. _Don't think about it Leo, you'll just get upset..._

...four... three... two...

Just two letters left. Y. Yin and Yang. Splinter would have liked that. See B... Balance. See E... Equilibrium. That's what this is supposed to be all about, isn't it?

...one...

One thing to do. Only one.

Z.

Zero.

Leonardo reached out his other hand and picked up the damaged, orange-glowing crystal -

Disorientation was immediate. Leonardo staggered backward a step with his left hand still clenched on the broken crystal. He could see, as it came off the table, how the table-top was warped and discolored under the spot where the thing had lain...

The orange glow was changing hue, shifting through the spectrum upwards and settling finally on a brilliant green, as if the color couldn't run to a frequency high enough to match the coruscating blue of his own Sceptre.

 _It's an access too_ , he thought. _I just opened another one -_

His Sceptre registered confirmation in his mind, with a clarity he could scarcely credit. He could _hear_ it better now, now that the accesses were open, and opening wider -

The green glow extended to envelope his hand, just like the blue had already done on the other.

The disorientation grew worse and the sense of dislocation more acute. He felt almost...disconnected, as if he was no longer where he had been. As if - as if he'd somehow _crossed over -_

 _Out of body again..._

Out of body and into the Void -

But the Sceptre registered a strong negative. _No facet has ever been lost..._

The sense of distension continued. Leo fell to one knee, aware that he'd done so, but it was as if it had happened to someone else. The green glow had reached his fingers, crept beyond. Still there was no pain, no sensation at all, and he distantly found himself grateful for that.

His skin was blistering and peeling ahead of that creeping green -

He wrenched his gaze away from that, sought instead to anchor himself with his own Sceptre. The blue fire had passed his elbow now, engulfing the leather pads along with his living flesh, and was still climbing shoulderward. _Pretty blue_. He'd always liked the color blue. The whole of the Sceptre itself was now an indistinct glare and his hand melded into it -

'Beam me over Scotty', he thought inanely. Sceptre, what's happening?

The answers came. He had access to them now.

The _Presence_ was there...

And the _Presence_ was guiding the whole operation, carefully controlling the rate at which his physical substance was sloughing off into elsewhere by subatomic bits and pieces, quantum tunneling out of _here_ and into _there_ in a process that would widen a portal large enough to pull the other access into it and out of its present dimension.

 _It will wormhole without consequence in the intergalactic void. The proper timeline will be restored. All will be as it should have been._

The city'll be okay? Renet will be okay? Splinter and my brothers will be -

 _The previous timeline will be restored._

 _I don't understand_. It was complex and vast, all of what he was beginning to perceive...

 _Understanding will be attained at full synthesis._

It was becoming difficult to think. But it didn't seem to matter much now. True physical attenuation began, more and more of his mass slipping in two different directions.

E=mc2

It was so very elegant, that little equation. The Sceptres were channelling his mass off and converting it into energy to keep the inter-dimensional portals open.

 _I won't survive this..._

Another negative. _No facet has ever been lost._

 _What about Renet?_

 _The Renet-facet is very valuable. The Renet-facet has not yet reached full potential and will regain control of this unit._

The complexities were beginning to sort themselves out. The vastness was becoming less and less frightening. There was nothing there to fear. There was so much there...so many things to...to _perceive_...

 _Nexus had to be expendable?_

Of course it was so, and it was, after all, a small enough price to pay to save the whole universe...

 _The timeline will be restored. Leonardo-Nexus will attain synthesis. Leonardo-Adept will continue in the restored timeline. No facet is ever lost._

How very sensible. And interesting too. The _Presence_ gathered around him, broke into different facets - all part of one whole. There was no division, not really, no separation anymore. He was a part of it, perhaps he always had been. He couldn't recall his name. Couldn't, suddenly, recall very much of what he was doing there at all, or where he had been or why.

But it had the feel of _home_.

An event was going to occur. The _Presence_ turned its collective attention toward it, and so too did the facet that had recently called itself Leonardo.

The term had lost any coherent meaning, it belonged elsewhere. Still, there was an affinity for that other place - there were connections, however tenuous they had become. The temporal aberration would be removed, the process was very nearly complete. A brilliant blue nimbus was the only and very brief manifestation that registered with any significance. It had been expected, but one portion of the whole made a special note of it.

 _Blue_ , that facet observed, strongly enough that the concept touched all parts of the whole. _Always did like the color blue..._

~o~


	9. Chapter 5

**Paradox: Chapter Five**

Long rodent fingers held forth the bag of candy.

Accepting the gift from his master, Leonardo ran until he reached the point where Raphael and Michelangelo eagerly awaited, then paused. He stood frozen, as if waiting for something -

"C'mon! Jump already!" Raph yelled.

"Yeah! M&Mers!" Mike practically drooled.

But Leonardo tucked the M&Ms into his belt. Then crossed his arms. "No. We're saving these until the fireworks. Promise?"

Michelangelo and Raphael looked at each other, debated it. Then nodded their agreement.

Leonardo jumped over, landing just in front of Raphael. Who waited for him to take all of four steps toward their destination before glancing sidelong at his co-conspirator. _"Get 'im."_

But Leonardo was ready. He sprang straight up, grabbing hold of a pipe, tucking his legs up and laughing as the two missed him.

Raphael collided with Michelangelo, who went down, entangling his brother's legs. Teetering at the edge of the channel, Raphael was about to fall in. Donatello surged forward, but Leonardo was there to grab Raphael's wrist and pull him back.

"Just saved your life," Leonardo grinned.

Don leaned on his bo, gesturing at the dark water. " _Geez,_ Raph! You _tryin'_ to stink things up?"

 _Raph-baiting_. Splinter sighed, he had better put a stop to this game before it got out of hand. But there was no need to intervene, Raphael was still in a good-natured mood.

Raph solemnly bowed to Leonardo, with just a hint of his trademark smirk. "I shall repay my debt, brother." And then he strode onward, "C'mon, we don't want to be late!"

Leonardo glanced at the others, a puzzled look on his face. Raph _never_ made formal statements.

"Uh-oh. _You're_ in for it," Donatello said, setting off after Raphael.

"Totally," Michelangelo agreed as he left in pursuit.

Leonardo looked forlornly at Splinter, "What did I do?"

The Rat smiled and shrugged his shoulders, "I have no idea."

~o~

Renet had been waiting for half an hour, but for now, time didn't matter, not now. There was something more important she had to see, because until she did, she would not truly believe...

Shadows slipped from the storm drain's access. Shadows neither in the shape of men, nor animals, but something in between. Five shapes. Four Turtles and a Rat.

Tears formed as they passed her. He was _there_.

His form wavered in her watery vision; she saw him pause as if he sensed something. But Mike bumped him, and he was moving on, kicking at his brother, laughing.

 _Leonardo._

She had screamed his name, waking on the cold floor. The awful realization, knowing what he was doing. What _Sim_ had known and _not_ told them. Why the Sceptre had rejected her and become Leo's. She saw the solution. Understood it.

But it hurt. Dammit, it _hurt_.

 _I lied to you Leo! This is not what I expected._

She mentally supported him. He was making the choice...

Or - was there _ever_ a choice for him?

But Leo's face was calm, and when he shut his eyes, his fear lessened. He found what he needed to make his sacrifice. It wasn't about saving his family anymore. He would never join them. It was beyond self. It was for _everything_.

Renet watched Leo dissolving into two directions. Into space, into time. Closing, healing the gap. Becoming one with the cosmos - nirvana.

 _I don't think they meant it quite this way. But -_

Two hands, one mind. One Sceptre. One soul... Not two.

 _How else did I think this could be solved?_

The colored forces ate their way up his arms, the blue significantly ahead. But his face showed no pain, he was beyond it, his re-opened eyes were transfixed beyond. To what? "Good-bye Leo!" she sobbed, knowing he could not hear her. That he no longer knew her at all. That he was already gone...

The blue streaked across his chest, devouring the green, enveloping it, subsuming it, sending it elsewhere...the blue glow consumed the last of the Turtle, filling the room with an overpowering light.

Renet sat on the floor, shaking as if from chills. Her vision slowly returned, colored spots dancing before her, teasing, tormenting her with the last memory of Leonardo's form. She struggled to regain her composure as she rose and looked through the window...

On the floor near a badly damaged table was a Sceptre. Only one Sceptre, the sands glowing a quiet pink, safely contained within.

The other crystal and its clawed holder, and Leo - _her Leo_ \- were gone. Utterly.

She let herself go through the motions of opening the door without thinking, from one of the keys taken from Jay. Let herself tentatively reach for the Sceptre, carefully, gingerly - but it was Hers again. It flashed a momentary blue, giving no punishing shock. It acknowledged her as its Mistress. And through contact with it, she knew that Leonardo had succeeded, Time was healed. Cradling the Sceptre, Renet wiped away the wet trail of tears spilling again.

 _Stop it! How can I mourn for him? He never should have existed! He was not the real Leonardo, just a time-slip variant fluke..._

But what is it that makes up a Life?

I know what he liked, what he feared. He was my friend, the truest friend I've ever had. As long as I remember him, then that Leo was Real!

At the edge of her mind, she sensed the _Presence_ , different somehow. She reached out to it, and found a familiar chord within. Something of a benighted soul remained...

 _Leo._..

She smiled through her tears. Had it always been there? Maybe she'd not known what to look for until now. Maybe there was a reason she had met them that night. Not a fluke, not an accident. Fate. Destiny.

Like pulled to - like.

The Sceptre had taken her there in three years because - because of today?

Fireworks lit the night. The booming sounds of explosions in celebration of freedom rocked through her. She watched, relaxing for a few minutes of restful pleasure. Somewhere, not far away, her mutant friends were enjoying the evening too, unaware of what had been given to make it so.

A blue burst jarred her. _Blue_... like the Sceptre.. A voice from another time echoed in her mind, and yet a time not so long ago from here.

 _"Renet, promise you will tell me what I did, someday, when it's ok to... if you remember me..."_

A wish of one life against the Order of Time, now one with it. Renet smiled at the fire-painted sky.

 _"I remember, Leo... I will..."_

 _The End...is just another Beginning..._


End file.
